You Can't Turn Back
by Lady Aurelia
Summary: Dark forces are at work, but then again, they have always been at work. Lord Voldemort seeks to control the ancient "magic" wielded by the Herald of Gentle Darkness, and it just so happens that the Herald is Harry's new DADA professor. But what is a King without his court? There's more than just one new professor, and more than just one power at large.
1. Prologue

**Summary:** Dark forces are at work, but then again, they have always been at work. Lord Voldemort seeks to control the ancient "magic" wielded by the Herald of Gentle Darkness, and it just so happens that the Herald is Harry's new DADA professor. But what is a King without his court? There's more than just one new professor, and more than just one power at large.  
**Rating:** T (may be bumped up in later chapters)  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own YuGiOh or Harry Potter. Rights belong to © Kazuki Takashi and J.K. Rowling  
**Author's Note:** This chapter is a rewrite of the original first chapter. More details about chapter rewrites can be found in the chapter four's author's note.

Furthermore, this story will be featuring an OC, but I promise not to focus on her too much from the rest. I actually want to scrap her from the story altogether, but that would mean rewriting the whole thing and I'm way too lazy to do such a thing. You had no idea how long it took me just to get off my ass and rewrite this chapter.

It took me _two years_.

Two years to get off my ass and rewrite this, okay.

* * *

**You Can't Turn Back  
-(**_**Prologue**_**)-**

* * *

No, Albus Dumbledore mused, today was just not his day.

He supposed he brought it upon himself, though. He had all summer to prepare for the school year and he waited until the last month to finally tackle the growing problem of hiring _five new teachers_ for the year. He loved procrastination, really, but sometimes he regretted pushing aside due work. Maybe next time he would actually get his more important work done first before anything, but the Order did seem to hold him as well.

The old wizard sighed and leaned forward on his elbows, bringing his hands together meditatively. Now where in the world could he find so many professors in such a short timespan? A figuratively light bulb went off in his head as he realized something, and he stood up from his chair to give a little attention to his phoenix. The bird cooed.

"Fawkes, I've simply been thinking in the wrong places," Dumbledore said, stroking the fire bird's feathers. Fawkes made a noise of contentment and looked up at him questioningly. "England is a rather small place, as loathe as I am to admit it, but the world is huge. I think it's time you and I did some traveling."

The phoenix flapped its wings, cawing as both he and Dumbledore disappeared in a loud crack.

"Albus, something has come up—" Minerva McGonagall stepped into the room, only to see the last traces of the headmaster's apparition. The old woman shook her head and sighed. "Oh dear. It's _urgent_."

* * *

_**Dragon Sanctuary, Bucharest, Romania**_

"Shhhh, dear, I promise I don't bite," a woman with blue hair said, trying to coax the tiny baby dragon out of its hiding spot. It had escaped the pen and ran wild around the sanctuary, causing havoc to the workers and researchers in the area. "Well, not without your set of teeth, anyway."

The toddler dragon snarled and huffed, and did its best impression of a roar, but succeeded in letting out nothing more than a small squeak. The woman sighed, throwing her hands up in the air in frustration. If this was a grown dragon, she would be dressed to the nines in fire-proof equipment and waving around a slab of meat. Luckily, it wasn't.

"Havin' trouble there, Aqua?" a man with fiery red hair came up behind her, giving a glance to the growling baby reptile. She sighed and stroked her temples.

"I just don't have a way with dragons like you do," Aqua replied, stepping back to let the man work his metaphorical magic. "Or the same bond. You do it, Charlie."

"Hey there, buddy," Charlie said, slowly approaching the dragon and letting down all of his guard. The tiny reptile looked up to him, freezing shock still except for the growl that left his throat. "No, no, you don't need to be scared. Your mother's worried, y'know? She's havin' a huge fit since you're missing. I promise I won't hurt ya—so let me take you back to your mother."

The baby dragon looked up at him again, letting out the tiniest of snarls, before sniffing his hand. After an obnoxiously long minute, it slowly started making its way towards Charlie, one tiny step at a time. Charlie smiled, but made no move to snatch it. Finally, the beast made it up his hand and crawled its way up to his shoulders.

"That's the spirit," Charlie said, lifting his shoulder a little so that the dragon had more leverage. "See her, over there? She's already sent someone to St. Mungo's because of the burns. Your mother's a fierce dragon. Be proud."

As the two walked away, the dragon turned around and did a dragon equivalent of sticking its tongue out at Aqua before returning back to his perch on Charlie's shoulder.

_((Ooooh, let me at him, let me at him—))_

_(Stay back. It's just a baby!)_

_((It was spiting us! Did you see that smug look? I'll tear off its wings—))_

And with that, Aqua blocked her mental counterpart and gave a bright smile to a passerby who wasn't even looking at her. Sighing, she made her way back to her work station and collapsed into the wooden chair.

"Hey Aqua, got a minute?" Charlie came running up again, and she looked up.

"Shore, I mean—sure," she had a nasty habit of fish puns, and the voice laughing hysterically in the back of her head didn't help either.

"Great!" he pulled up a chair across from her table and sat down, folding his arms in front of him on it (after pushing some things away). "I have a friend, or—former mentor—who needs a bit of help. He actually just contacted me a few minutes ago."

"And I assume it has to do something with me?"

"Well, yes! He's in need of some teachers for his school. I've seen you with those magical history textbooks, you know, you might be qualified for the history position open,"

"Whale… I mean, _well,_ I don't know. I don't even have a teacher's degree!"

"He's not particularly picky about that," Charlie shifted in his seat and leaned forward a bit. "Tell you what, if you're interested, you can talk over details with him. He's here, but just wanted me to approach you."

"Great! Which room is he in?"

"He's not in the sanctuary, but he's in Bucharest," he replied, taking a piece of paper from the table along with a pen and writing down an address. He looked over it once again before handing the paper to her. "He should be in this restaurant."

"What does he look like?" she asked, pocketing the paper after the memorizing the address. She had been in the restaurant a few times to know how to get there from where she was now.

"You'll know him when you seem him. He's a bit old," Charlie gave a slight grin, as if sharing some inside joke with himself. "A _lot_ old."

* * *

_**Restaurant Vantra, Bucharest, Romania**_

Charlie was right when he said she would recognize him on sight.

Sitting amongst the locals and loud tourists in the restaurant was an old man dressed in rather… unusual clothing. He looked like he stepped out of a fairytale, with a long periwinkle robe and a pointy hat to match. His hair was pure silver and extremely long, and the same could be said for his beard. His robe was long enough to cover his boots, but it sashayed to the side to reveal buckled shoes. It all together said _elderly_, but the look in his eyes held something mysterious.

The receptionist approached her, and Aqua quickly spoke in broken Romanian to tell her that she already had a table, and it was with the old man in the corner. She knew it was a good idea to get a language charm cast on her before she stepped out. Well, no use crying over spilled milk.

"Professor Dumbledore?" she asked as she approached the table. The elder looked up from his large bowl of ice cream and smiled.

"That's me, unless you were looking for another Dumbledore," he replied, putting down his spoon. Aqua slid into the seat across from him.

"Charlie, er—_Charlie Weasley_—said you had a job position available?" she started, giving the name of a random food to the waiter that approached with a menu. He nodded once before leaving. Dumbledore raised an eyebrow in question but did not ask.

"Yes, he did. You must be miss Aqua del Sarto—Spanish?" he asked.

"Aaah, no, Italian. That would be my mother's surname,"

"Your father's?"

"A little too complicated to be adopted onto paper and remember each time," she replied sheepishly, thanking the waiter when he came back with her order. Aqua picked up the spoon and stirred, but didn't make a move to taste it yet. Dumbledore raised his spoon and took another bite of his ice cream.

"Charlie said you had an interest in magical history," he continued after swallowing, and then wiped off the excess with a napkin, being careful with his beard.

"It's _fascinating_, to say the least," she said eagerly before sipping her soup. "It's not too much different from muggle history, and sometimes the two tie together so closely that you'd think they were the same. Maybe not sometimes, more like _all the time_."

"We have a History of Magic position open in our school, along with a few others. Charlie mentioned that you might know some people who might be able to help me fill the other positions?" he asked, straight to the point. Aqua straightened subconsciously, and finished her soup after he was done talking.

"Yes, I do have a few friends! It depends on what subjects you're looking for, though,"

"We have five positions open: History of Magic, Care of Magical Creatures, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and Defense Against the Dark Arts, which, I should mention, is open every year," he said, finding amusement in his last statement. "All of the above should only be for a year since some professors are taking the year off to take care of family."

"Whale, a year can't be that bad,"

_(('Well', dear. Not whale.))_

_(Shut up.)_

Retreating back into the recesses of her mind, her counterpart snickered and Aqua had to resist the urge to facepalm. It was her own fault, really. She needed to lose the habit of replacing ordinary words with their aquatic life phonetic counterparts.

"Then you'll take the job?" Dumbledore asked after a while, and Aqua realized she had just zoned out. _Well then._

"I'd be happy to. A year shouldn't be too bass—_bad_," she cursed herself mentally, and was met with more snickers. "And I have a few friends that might be interested in those positions. Maybe enough to fill all of them out for you."

"Excellent! Now before we move on, what was that soup you just ordered? I have a fine eye for fine cuisine,"


	2. Tick Tock, Said the Bird

_**Summary: **Dark forces are at work, but then again, they have always been at work. Lord Voldemort seeks to control the ancient "magic" wielded by the Herald of Gentle Darkness, and it just so happens that the Herald is Harry's new DADA professor. But what is a King without his court? There's more than just one new professor, and more than just one power at large.__  
__**Rating:**__ T (may be bumped up in later chapters)  
__**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own YuGiOh or Harry Potter. Rights to © Kazuki Takashi and J.K. Rowling  
**Author's Note:** This is a rewrite of the original chapter. All rewrite details plus more information are on chapter four.  
_

* * *

**You Can't Turn Back  
**_**-("Tick Tock," Said the Bird)-**_

* * *

"WATCH OUT!"

"What - OW!"

"I told you to watch out!"

"Well excuse me for not listening. Your accent makes it hard for me to understand you,"

"That joke was so funny I forgot to laugh,"

"Ha ha."

The brown-haired man rubbed his forehead where he hit his head on the stop sign while his blue-haired friend was laughing his head off. Colorful words ran out of his mouth in Japanese as the blue haired one laughed even harder. Judai glared at Johan as if it was his fault that he hit his forehead on the stop sign (although it was part of the reason why).

Johan finally stopped laughing after a while as they walked into a restaurant and sat down near a window table. Aqua had called them to meet her in the restaurant and was the other half of the reason why Judai bumped into the stop sign.

_-{Flashback}-_

_Ring Ring Ring! Ring Ring Rin –_

_Judai flipped open the cell phone only to be greeted by a 'AHHH!' he pulled it a friendly distance from his ear before he made sure it was okay to put it back to his ear again. An argument was on the other line, spoken in English while Judai waited. Finally it stopped as the person who called him answered the phone._

_"Hello Judai! I'm sorry about that. Something was… flying at me," Aqua's voice carried from the other side. "How are you?"_

"_Flying at you? Are you alright?" Judai asked quickly and was met with chuckling on the other side. "I mean, I'm fine."_

"_I'm perfectly fine, don't worry. It was a tiny accident that __**will not happen next time**__," half-way through the sentence, her voice distorted into something a bit deeper and layered. Something heavy dropped on her side._

"_Aurelia…?" Judai asked hesitantly, and immediately pulled his phone away from his ear as a high-pitched screech resounded from the other side._

"_**Oh my God you stupid book I swear I will rip you to shreds and burn you in front of your family**__—"_

"_**Aurelia. Calm down**__," Judai responded, though his eyes were now golden and his voice took on the same layered tone as the one heard through his cell phone. There was another large crash._

"_I'm sorry, Haou, but I'll just meet you at Sushi Kappo Kawasaki, that restaurant that Kenzan promised not to go in again," Aqua replied, now fully back to herself now that she had kicked her counterpart out of control._

"_**Hn**__," he said, but she had already hung up. Judai fully took control of his body again and stuffed the phone back into his pocket._

"_Watch out!" Johan warned._

"_What - OW!"_

_-{Flashback End}-_

Thus was the reason why Judai had a red spot on his forehead and why they were at a restaurant. Johan was looking at his menu curiously deciding on what to eat while Judai was ordering almost everything in sight. Johan felt a bit of pity for the poor waitress writing down Judai's orders and interrupted him (much to Judai's dismay).

"Excuse me, I think I'll just have a strawberry milkshake," Johan said and the waitress gave him a relieved look before slowly writing it down. Just before she decided to escape before Judai started his rant again, Johan stopped her. "And we have a few more friends coming. If we could get something like a value order that would be great."

The waitress nodded and bowed before scurrying to the kitchen to put the orders in. Johan leaned back and gave a look to Judai who was sitting across from him at the table.

"I was just getting to desserts!" Judai whined and he sighed again.

He was going to regret asking this. "How much did you order?"

* * *

"Excuse me! Coming through! Sorry!"

Aqua pushed past the people in the bustling city of Domino. Her destination was a restaurant not a long ways from where she was now. Walking was much easier than taking the underground metro or driving a car. It was rush hour, and it was the worst time of day to be stuck in traffic.

_Beep beep beep! Hoonnnk!_

"Hey move it already!"

"It's still red light!"

"We're going to be late for a doctor's appointment!"

"Oh well!"

"You want to handle this physically?"

"I thought you'd never ask!"

Now that you know why, we will now turn our cameras back to Aqua.

Aqua pushed passed the crowds, trying to run through every gap she could see. If an Olympic gold medalist saw her speed now, they would envy her. The spirit in her head, her 'darker' counterpart, was tired of shifting through all these people and decided to take over ("_HEY—_!").

Aqua's used-to-be long blue hair had now turned dark and almost black, unfortunately causing a clash of colors with the wardrobe her other half had chosen. It was a pale blue dress that reached her knees with thick straps over her shoulders. There was nothing fancy about it; it was just a plain casual dress with ruffles and a wavy skirt.

Aurelia took a deep breath and counted to three before taking a much more aggressive approach. She threw her body into the crowd, causing the people to scatter in panic and, in turn, create a path for her to clearly get to her destination without obstacles.

She stopped in front of the place and checked in with her reservation before heading in and to Judai and Johan's table.

* * *

_**Sushi Kappo Kawasaki, Domino City, Japan**_

"I just ordered a few dishes, honest!"

"And what does 'a few dishes' translate to in your language?"

"Strawberry shortcake, some beef, a bit of sushi, along with most of the main course section... Oh! And I told the waitress to get us some chocolate ice cream after our lunch."

"Good Lord, Judai,"

He continued to go on and on and on and on about everything he ordered. Johan sighed for another time that day, same old Judai: whose stomach was an endless black hole even back when they were seventeen. He also wondered if they could pay for all of it.

He corrected himself.

Of _course_ they would be able to pay for it! How _stupid_ was that question?

Their salaries (from each month) combined could buy a three million dollar mansion and _still_ be able to buy one more. Goodness, Kaiba Corporation gets money by the second and that was where they got salaries from. Seto Kaiba has already expanded his products all over the world, and Great Britain was next. The day Kaiba doesn't come up with a new machine to invent is when hell freezes over.

Johan looked out the window, ignoring Judai's list of foods he ordered and the ones he would have liked to order. The brown-haired teen-at-heart seemed to be in his own little world, not noticing his friend across the table at all.

Johan blinked, and then leaned closer to the window as he saw something peculiar. Were the crowds… separating? It was rush hour, and such a huge crack in traffic could only be caused by people who were either a) famous or b) frightening.

As he realized who was running down the cleared pathway, he realized it was, c) both.

The woman ran up to the restaurant, adjusting the straps of her bag as she did so. After a quick chat with the receptionist at the front, she made her way over to their table. Johan waved lightly and was greeted with a nod.

"Hello to you two," she said as she slid into the seat next to Judai. He scooted over to make room for her.

"What did you do?" Johan asked. Aurelia faked innocence, though it was easy to see through it.

"Who? Me? Johan! You big meanie! I would never do a thing!" she said, acting like a five-year-old who was caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Johan raised his eyebrows.

"I even saw you Aurelia, what did you do?" Judai asked and Aurelia sighed. If _Judai_ paid attention, then she was caught red-handed.

"Well, I was tired of dodging everything and everyone, you know. That's like being a thief—" (there was an angry snort in her mind) "—so I decided to take a more direct approach. I _pushed_ my way out of the crowd," she explained, grinning. The grin was lost as her eyes returned back to blue instead of gold, and her hair was its normal shade again.

"To be more exact, she slammed into the person in front of her, which created a domino effect and made everyone try to stagger out of the way before they were hit," Aqua clarified, sighing. "She never changes, really. I didn't want to disturb anyone."

"Same old Aurelia," Johan joked and they all shared a chuckle. "But besides your counterpart's shenanigans, why have you brought us here?"

* * *

_**Earlier That Week, Fossil Dig, Melbourne, Australia**_

"_Look, my family owns this dig and I'll be happy to fire you if you don't hand this phone to my friend named Jim Cook_."

"Y-Yes m-ma'am!"

The man hurried over to one of the holes in which a team of experts were carefully excavating fossils. A man with a cowboy hat and his right eye wrapped in bandages handled the fragile specimens, dusting them off carefully as he carried them back to the workbench.

"Jim, the person in charge of this dig is on the phone right now and wants to speak with you," Jim looked up as the man handed him his blue cell and stormed away angrily, colorful words spilling out of his mouth.

"Hey Aqua, that you? You sure got the figjam mad as a cut snake if ya ask me," Jim said as he dusted off his hands and placed the tools in the plastic container nearby.

"Actually, that wasn't… me…" Aqua replied sheepishly and Jim laughed, sitting down next to his crocodile, Karen. He ran his fingers of her scales and she made a content noise.

"But I am funding this dig, though. That part was true," she continued and Jim raised his eyebrows, though he knew she couldn't see it. After a moment of silence she huffed. "Okay, _half_ of this dig."

"And the other half is me," he said proudly.

"And the other half is you," he could almost see her rolling her eyes. "But enough about that. Jim, I know you work on fossils for a living, but ever done any work on runes?"

"I think I had some experience in a dig back in Egypt and learned a few things," he said, opening a canteen of water. "Karen, open up—I took a class afterwards, if it helps." The crocodile next to him opened its mouth and he proceeded to pour all of the canteen's contents into it.

"Eeeh," she sounded unsure, but a few more words exchanged between her and another person on the other side seemed to quell her doubts. "Jim, I have a friend who needs some help with filling in positions in his school, and I thought you might be able to help out."

"Sure, what do you need?"

* * *

_**Number Four Privet Drive, Little Winging, Surrey**_

_And so the guardian and the king became one,  
And so the companion and the queen took form,  
__And so the knight and his vessel were done,  
And so the kingdom and its inhabitants mourned._

_Dark was the world without its light,  
And dark was the world created,  
A comet shall be the only guide,  
A comet shall be for the fated._

_Every story tries to be different,  
And yet every story tries to be the same.  
But this story strives for reunion,  
And reunion to its name._

Harry Potter, resident world savior number three, woke up from his dream. He didn't get a nightmare this time, or a replay of what happened in the graveyard last year during the Tri-Wizard tournament. He didn't get a vision of what Voldemort would do or what he was doing. He got a poem about some world without light and comets and kings and queens.

Rubbing his eyes, the Boy Who Lived slid off his bed, reaching for his glasses. However, before he could find them, he caught something unusual on the other side of his window. Frowning, he stepped closer.

"Is that… a comet?" he asked himself, squinting his eyes to get a better view. "Why isn't it moving?"

And suddenly the comet changed direction, heading straight for him. In his panic, he ducked and put on his glasses, knocking the floorboard where he kept his wand loose. A few minutes passed with no collision, and he hesitantly looked up again.

The comet was gone.

* * *

_**Sushi Kappo Kawasaki, Domino City, Japan (Present Time)**_

"Mmm. This dish is very good, what is it?"

"Sushi. To be more specific, rice with raw salmon on top."

"Delicious. I have to teach the house elves how to make this."

"House elves?"

"Elves that make our food at Hogwarts, do the cleaning, and most of the housework things."

"Oh."

The old man took another piece of sushi off the plate, before munching on it merrily. Judai had stayed true and ate everything that he had ordered, _and then some._ The two others were engrossed in their own conversation while waiting for another one of their group to arrive.

There was a loud shriek from the front desk, and all four of them stopped their dining to look in that general direction. A man with a typical cowboy outfit and a crocodile attached to his back had entered the building, and he currently trying to help the lady regain consciousness. After a few minutes he sighed and called over security before making his way over to their table.

"Hey, mates," he greeted, tipping his hat as he slid into the seat next to Johan. "Looks like Aqua chatted both of you up as well."

"And made me run into a pole," Judai murmured, stuffing another plate of fried rice into his esophagus. "But I'm fine."

"Well, I think it's about time I introduced myself," Dumbledore said, wiping off his mouth with a napkin and straightening the wrinkles on his robe. "I'm Albus Dumbledore, which, is not my full name, but the whole thing is rather tedious. You can call me Headmaster Dumbledore."

"I assume you all know about magic, yes?" he asked, and the rest of the group nodded. They had been in some weird dimensional travels even before this, and perhaps that could be called 'magic'. "Well, you see, my school is a school for witches and wizards, and to teach the next magical generation how to use and bend magic to their will."

He stopped to let it all sink in, and the party had varying reactions. Jim, who had already been briefed over the phone a week ahead of time, nodded in acknowledgement and exchanged a few questions with Dumbledore on his subjects. The other two, Judai and Johan, shared glances before zoning out.

"_Okay so there are other types of magic,"_ Judai commented as his golden-eyed counterpart paced back and forth in the hall of mirrors.

"_Of course there are," _Haou replied, sitting down on a chair that phased into existence. He leaned his elbow on the armrest and his chin on the back of his hand. _"Their magic seems weaker, though. Like they need a medium to channel it through."_

"_Woah, you can sense that?"_ Judai asked and his counterpart sighed.

"Earth to Judai and Johan, we miss you," Aqua said, waving her hand in front of the two. Johan blinked and smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. Judai blinked as well, and in a moment his eyes were gold instead of brown, before they flickered back to their normal colour.

"I'm in need of some new professors for the school year, since a lot of them decided to abscond away to their families," Dumbledore continued, bringing another piece of sushi to his mouth and eating it. "Which is the reason why miss del Sarto called you here."

"Aqua is fine," the said woman replied. "I don't think Professor del Sarto really fits. I might have to actually take my father's surname, oops."

"Aqua it is," he replied, clapping his hands together to grab everyone's attention again. "Anyway, she said that you might be able to take up these positions. The ones open right now are Defense Against the Dark Arts, Arithmancy, and Care of Magical Creatures. Mister Cook here has already accepted the invitation to teach Ancient Runes."

As if on cue, the Australian tipped his hat at Judai and Johan, who were the only ones left out of the loop.

"If I may ask," Johan started, pushing aside a couple of plates to lean his elbows on the table. "What exactly is Arithmancy?"

"Oh right, I almost forgot," Dumbledore replied with a chuckle. "Arithmancy is the study of numbers, and their magical properties."

"Numbers have magical properties?" Judai blinked.

"Of course! For example, the most famous Arithmancer is Bridget Wenlock, who discovered the magical properties of the number seven centuries ago," the old wizard explained.

"Lucky number seven," Johan realized, and Dumbledore nodded. "I'm not usually one for math—not to say my math skills were abysmal—but magical properties in _numbers_. That seems extremely interesting!"

"Usually, I would require you to take some sort of exam before I enlist your help, but time is rather short. It's only a month before school starts."

"What do you suggest?"

"I'll give you access to all of the Arithmancy books in the school's library and beyond, though I don't think you'll need any more once you see the size of the library itself. It's rather huge," Dumbledore said, a twinkle in his eye. He took pride in his school. "And you will be required to at least know the basics."

"Sounds easy enough," Johan replied. "I'll just have to get to studying real soon."

"Can someone please explain to me what just happened," Judai asked, blinking.

"Don't worry about it, dear, you'll hurt yourself," Aqua joked, hiding a smile behind her hand.

"Hey! I resent that!"

"Then I'll take it, since Judai here isn't so hot on math or studying," Johan laughed and Judai pouted.

"I will take Defense Against the Dark Arts, Headmaster," Judai suddenly said, his eyes glowing a light gold and his voice becoming somewhat layered. It was lucky that Dumbledore didn't notice the change. "I've had enough field practice to work out how to defend against such things."

_/./I'm pretty much Prince of Darkness, so it can't be __**that**__ hard././_

_/A warning before I get kicked out of my body would be nice!/_

"Daichi would have made a great Arithmancy teacher though," Judai said, his voice and eye colour back to normal.

"Too bad he is still in Dark World with Taniya," Johan reminded him. Judai sighed and mumbled 'it was his choice'. Dumbledore clapped his hands again and all attention was focused on him.

"Thank you, you have been a great help to me," Dumbledore said, standing up from his seat. "I just need to find a Care of Magical Creatures teacher, and I will be set for the year."

Jim smirked and or smiled, it was hard to tell which one. "I think I have just the person for the job, Headmaster."

* * *

_**Number Four Privet Drive, Little Winging, Surrey**_

A white snowy owl flew through the open window of an orange brick house. A bundle of letters was attached to her leg as she landed on her perch, chirping for her owner to wake.

Fifteen year-old Harry Potter woke up at his owl's chirping and began to yawn. The owl stretched out her foot which had letters attached to it and Harry untied them. Each of the letters were written in fine parchment and ink, and each of them sealed with a stamp. Harry took the first letter he saw and broke off the seal.

_Dear little Harry,_

_Hey Harry! This is Fred, or is it George? Either way its us. We just found out some juicy information concerning four of our Hogwarts beloved professors._

Harry could sense the sarcasm coming from the last few words, even if it was written in parchment.

_And of course the usual Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher._

Harry kept reading, each year he got a new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, and he wanted to know who would take the position this year. And perhaps not surprisingly, all the Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers were connected to the yearly trouble at Hogwarts. This year was probably no different.

_Turns out that Binns FINALLY retired and that Professor Vector, the teacher in charge of teaching Artihmancy, left to take care of some urgent family business. Our Ancient Runes professor wanted to spend more time with his family and Hagrid,_

Harry stiffened. What happened to Hagrid? He was rather fond of the half-giant who first introduced him to the wizarding world.

_gone off somewhere and said he wouldn't be returning until next year. And can you believe Dumbledore? He found all five replacements in one week! A new world record I think. And check this out Harry: all our new professors are foreigners! He got a person from Australia (amazing bloke isn't he?), two people from Japan, one person from Italy and the other from Norway! I don't know how but Dumbledore sure has a lot of contacts._

Harry's eyes widened at this. Dumbledore hired foreigners?

_But we don't wanna tell you their names, mate. That would ruin the surprise! So be patient little Harry and wait until school starts!_

_See you later,  
~Fred and George_

Harry put down letter and picked up the next, still thinking about the new Hogwarts professors. This one was from Ron.

_Hey,_

_Hey there, mate! Did you hear about the new professors? I think it would be cool learning from foreigners! Wouldn't you think that? Anyways, Hermione is being a pain again telling me to do my homework. School doesn't start until next month and guess what? She already finished hers! No surprises here though._

_Later,  
~Ron_

Harry laughed at Ron's antics but agreed with him nonetheless. He only got half of his homework done and Ron still hadn't started. No surprises to him. The next was from Hermione.

_Greetings and salutations._

_Did you finish your homework Harry? I know you are much more responsible than Ron and you should have at least done something unlike him. And how are you Harry? Any nightmares bothering you?_

_Don't forget,  
Hermione_

Harry was happy to say no, no nightmares this whole summer actually. But he kept wondering about the poem he got in his dreams. Maybe things would clear up when he got to school, but first he would mail the poem to Hermione to see if she knew anything. He took a quill and a piece of parchment from the messy end table beside his bed and began to write.

_Dear Hermione, Ron, and all of you at the Burrow,_

_I finished half my homework Hermione if that is enough for you. And I'm great, thanks for asking. I have had no nightmares so far this summer and I don't know why. But I kept getting this poem in my dreams lately, with flashes of monsters that I've never seen before. I'll copy the poem down to here so that you know what it is:_

_And so the guardian and the king became one,  
And so the companion and the queen took form,  
__And so the knight and his vessel were done,  
And so the kingdom and its inhabitants mourned._

_Dark was the world without its light,  
And dark was the world created,  
A comet shall be the only guide,  
A comet shall be for the fated._

_Every story tries to be different,  
And yet every story tries to be the same.  
But this story strives for reunion,  
And reunion to its name._

_If you have any information, could you tell me when I get to the Burrow?_

_Thanks,  
Harry_

* * *

_**Number Twelve, Grimmauld Palace, London, England**_

After a few days, Hedwig soared back through the window of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Palace. The Order members gathered around the owl as Hermione untied the string and broke off the seal of the letter. She took the paper and read carefully.

"Listen," she said as she began to read aloud. "_I have had no nightmares so far this summer and I don't know why. But I kept getting this poem in my dreams lately, with flashes of monsters that I've never seen before._ Harry copied down the poem, here."

She handed the piece of parchment to Dumbledore as he read the poem aloud.

"Dark was the world without its light?" Dumbledore mumbled as the cogs in his head started turning. An imaginary light bulb shined over his head. "Yes, I think I've got it. 'Dark was the world without its light' is referring to a dark world. And 'dark world' is a term I heard earlier today."

"Pray tell, Albus, do you know what it means?" a short woman with fiery red hair asked.

"Yes, yes! I remember. Two of the new professors I hired said that someone by the name of 'Daichi' stayed behind at 'Dark World' by choice during the interview. Though I never knew what they were talking about."

"It's something to do with the new professors?"

"It is always something to do with the new professors," Dumbledore said and turned to a man with raggedy black hair in the back. "Sirius, do you mind if I borrow your library?"

"I don't mind at all," he replied and Dumbledore nodded, before setting off in the general direction of the aforementioned room.

"FILTHY MUDBLOODS GET OUT OF MY HOUSE! YOU BLOOD TRAITORS, A DISGRACE TO ALL PUREBLOODS!"

"Mrs. Black is at it again, come on Remus," Molly Weasley sighed as both she and a brown haired man stepped out of the room to quell the painting.

* * *

_**One Week Later, After The Hearing, Diagon Alley**_

"Come on Harry, it wasn't that bad, mate."

"I. Hate. Fudge."

"Don't we all?"

"Come on children, we have to buy your supplies!"

"Yes! I would like to go to Flourish and Blotts first, please; I heard that they have a new collection of books this year!"

Ron groaned at the thought of books. Hermione had _finally _convinced him to do at least some of his work and now they were going to get more books. Joy. "Do we have to, 'ermione?"

"Yes, Ronald! Books help you learn, and I hope that concept got into your head the last four years," Hermione replied as they walked into the bookstore. However, instead of the usual storekeeper behind the counter, it was someone new.

The woman looked in her early twenties and had long bright blue hair that reached her waist. Unlike most wizards, she didn't wear a robe but instead wore a white button up long sleeve shirt along with black jeans and white boots that reached her knees. She was wearing _muggle clothing._

"What is she doing in those weird clothes?" Ron whispered to Hermione, who had gone off into the book maze as soon as they stepped foot into the store.

"She can wear what she wants, you know," she replied, sliding the ladder down the side of a bookshelf and plucking a tome from it. She skimmed through the first few pages before she put it back.

"But it's muggle clothing!"

"Perhaps she just came back from the muggle world. I don't know, Ron. Seriously, I don't know what everyone in the world is doing,"

"Hey, Ron and Hermione! Are you done? Because Mrs. Weasley is waiting for us at the counter!" Harry said as he came running into view.

"Alright, I'm almost done!" Hermione called back as she grabbed another book from the shelf. "Coming!"

She stepped off the ladder and ran after Harry with Ron bringing up the rear. Molly was waiting in front of the counter chatting up a storm with the woman behind the counter. As soon as she saw the Golden Trio coming from the book shelves she quickly gestured for them to come.

"Come on, we do not have much time," Molly said as Harry, Ron, and Hermione dropped their books on the counter and the lady checked them out.

"Say Mrs. Weasley, would you be interested in a discount?" she asked as she looked at the total price.

"Discount?" Molly had lightened up at the mention of saving some money.

"Aaah, yes. The storekeeper wanted to start something that would bring in more sales this year, so thus he started the family discount. You bring more than two children and buy more than two sets of school books and you can get thirty percent off."

"Of course I'd be interested!" Molly exclaimed and the two kept talking about the price of books. "Sure thing, here."

"Thank you, good luck Mrs. Weasley!" the woman said as she offered a kind smile and a wave as they exited. As soon as the group was out of sight and she made sure that no one could hear her, she sighed and stretched.

_(I just met three of my students)_

_((One of them was the Boy Who Lived to die another day))_

* * *

_**Tokyo International Airport, Tokyo, Japan**_

"Jim did what?"

"Yep, got me a new job-saurus,"

"Ca-Calm down Rei, I'm sure someone else can replace Kenzan,"

"I will not calm down, Martin! He is our best!"

"Calm down-saurus,"

"Grrr..."

Tyranno Kenzan and Martin Bonaparte sighed at Rei's temper. Jim had called earlier, telling Kenzan that he had gotten a new job for the wanna-be Drill Sargent. It was for teaching students about and taking care of magical animals (or creatures).

The trio was originally picking up Asuka and Fubuki from the airport until Kenzan got the call. Rei was extremely angry because one of her team was going away for a while.

"It's just a year Rei," Martin assured.

"Actually, it's more like seven or eight months! I won't even be gone for a full year-don!" Kenzan added, hoping to quell Rei's temper.

"Fine! Just one year, but then you come back!" Rei fumed.

"Understood-saurus,"

The two men sighed at Rei's stubbornness. They had been at it for hours until Rei _finally_ agreed, but for a year only.

"Rei! Martin! Kenzan!" A cheery voice came from where a private jet had landed. The trio turned towards the sound of the voice only to be squished together by the owner. The three of them coughed and the man with long brown hair let them go.

"Fubuki! I sometimes wonder if we _are_ related," Asuka said as she carefully stepped out from the passage leading from the jet to the airport. The five years that she had left Duel Academy had been kind to her, building up all of her physical features. Her hair was tied into a ponytail and she was wearing a gray business suit complete with red high heels.

"You're so mean lil' sis!" the man named Fubuki mock cried and she sighed. The Tenjouin siblings wanted to spend the rest of their vacation in their home country and Rei and the others came to greet them.

"Oh my God it's Fubuki-sama!"

"Ahh! Hide me!" Fubuki exclaimed as he hid behind Kenzan from the crazy fangirl. The fangirl only ran around Kenzan and shoved a cd album into Fubuki's face.

"Please autograph my album! I bought this as soon as it came out Fubuki-kun! I am a big fan of your music and you!" she said. Fubuki and Kenzan covered their ears, could this girl's voice get any higher?

"She's yours-don," Kenzan said and ran away from them to behind Rei and Martin. Fubuki quickly signed the album and gave her his trademark smile. She fainted happily. Fubuki sighed and walked back over to the others.

"I sometimes hate being famous,"

"Fubuki! Do you have a fever?"

* * *

_**Number Twelve Grimmauld Palace, London, England**_

_The king wore armor almost all the time except when he was in his room. He walked down the narrow hallway of his grandiose castle and up the stairs to his balcony. That was where he checked his army, reading to conquer yet another land._

_The large group of monsters below kept chanting something, a name. "Haou... Haou... Haou..."_

Harry shot up, awake, but there was no sweat that covered him like every other time. He rubbed his eyes and searched for his glasses before putting them on and getting up. His roommate, Ron, was still snoring the days away while Harry opened the window to let some sunlight come in. Ron groaned and turned over, away from the sunlight as he pulled his pillow over his head. Harry went over and tried to shake Ron awake.

"Hey mate, time to wake up," he said, but Ron only groaned and swatted his hand away. "Breakfast is ready."

It had an immediate effect as Ron shot out of bed almost instantly.

"Seriously?" he asked and Harry nodded. "Sweet!" Ron got up and got dressed in record time before heading downstairs. Harry blinked.

"If only Ron was that fast when we were running away from the spiders in our second year," he mumbled to himself as he exited the room as well.

* * *

_**Madame Malkin's Robes For All Occasions, Diagon Alley, England**_

The bell jingled as a new customer walked in. She seemed to be very cautious of the place ever since she stepped in, but she had to get what she needed and get out. Besides, this _was_ her only break, might as well make the most of it.

"Coming, coming!" came Madame Malkin's voice from another room. "That will be twelve galleons young man." She heard a jingle of coins being passed from one person to another before a boy came out.

He had platinum blond hair and deathly pale skin, and wore robes with a green tint reaching all the way to his ankle. He looked at the woman at the door in disgust before walking out, murmuring 'mudblood' along the way. She rolled her eyes, but decided to ignore him. She would never get wizards' prejudices.

_'Snob,'_ she thought as he shut the door behind him.

"Hello, dearie," Madame Malkin greeted as soon as she came out from the room. "What can I get for you today?"

The woman's face softened and turned with a smile towards Madame Malkin. "Sorry about that. Um... I came here to get an order placed by the owner of Flourish and Blotts," she said uncertainly. "And I wanted to buy a new dress robe along with other things."

"Oh, right! This way, dearie," Madame Malik led her to one of the fitting rooms and told her to stand on the stool while she went to get the measure. Moments later she came back holding a box and her supplies. "Now stand still..."

* * *

_**Unkown Place, Unkown City, England**_

A figure crept through the dusty shelves of the library. He was cloaked, his face shrouded in darkness as his hood draped over him. He crept stealthily, _quietly_, keeping to the shadows and darkness as he looked for a specific book.

At last he had reached his desired section, judging by the nod of his head as he looked up at the sign: section D - Dark World. The shelves were pretty bare here, seeing as not a lot of information was ever found about this place. The cloaked figure wandered down the aisle, stopping at a shelf which was completely empty except for one dusty book.

With careful and delicate fingers, he plucked it off the shelf. "After this long, I finally found you," he mumbled, barely above a whisper. His voice was slightly layered, and there was a dark, menacing tone to it. He exited the aisle and the section, going out the same way he came.

A fly landed on the dusty sign in the aisle that he had just exited. In capital letters, the sign said D - Dark World: K - Kings. The fly flew to where the book was once kept, and there was another sign placed there.

_D - Dark World: K - Kings: H – Haou_

* * *

_**Author's Note:**_

I'm evil aren't I? I left you with a cliffhanger! I tried to make this as long as possible, so don't kill me for leaving you with a cliffhanger! Even though I hate cliffhangers as much as you guys, I like making them just as much.

The poll on my page is now officially CLOSED. Apparently people like a certain someone to be the CoMC professor. Though it was kind of a shock when I saw someone vote Asuka.

_**Last Minute Message:**_

Constructive critism is always welcomed.  
Flames will **not** be tolerated; it will just show how immature you are.  
DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW! JUST CLICK THE GREEN BUTTON DOWN THERE AND TYPE IN SOMETHING ABOUT THE STORY (don't forget to click submit)!

_**Review Goal Before The Next Chapter Is Posted: **__At least 4-5 reviews like last time. I expect there be at least that many or no chapter._


	3. Hickory Dickory Dock

_**Summary: **Dark forces are at work, but then again, they have always been at work. Lord Voldemort seeks to control the ancient "magic" wielded by the Herald of Gentle Darkness, and it just so happens that the Herald is Harry's new DADA professor. But what is a King without his court? There's more than just one new professor, and more than just one power at large.__  
__**Rating:**__ T (may be bumped up in later chapters)  
__**Disclaimer: **__I do not own YuGiOh or Harry Potter. Rights to © Kazuki Takashi and J.K. Rowling  
__**Author's Note: **__This is a rewrite of the original. I didn't it like so I changed it. Rewrite details can be found on chapter four along with other information._

_Also, yes, I do know Harry Potter was set in the 1990's, but for the sake of these two stories clashing I have to bump up the time period._

* * *

**You Can't Turn Back  
**_**-(Hickory Dickory Dock)-**_

* * *

_**February 24th, 2005**_

_He smiled; he rarely ever did. But he wasn't that bad to hurt such an innocent kid. He laced his gloved hands around the duo-colored hair and ruffled it, the little boy laughing along. He smiled and laughed along too._

_"You promise?" he asked once the boy stopped laughing._

_"Yes, sir!" he childishly said and giggled. "I won't forget you or Yubel-sama!"_

_He smiled again and held his hand out, his pinky. The boy linked their pinkies and they shook._

_"Sure?" he asked._

_"Yes!" the boy replied again. "I, Judai, will never forget Haou or Yubel-sama, ever!"_

_The said enigma smiled and faded. The boy took out a card he had received from him and scanned it._

_"Super Fusion...?" the boy named Judai tilted his head in confusion before brightening. "Thank you so much, Haou-sama!"_

* * *

_**February 24th, 2018**_

_"Yubel...?" the same boy, except taller now, asked._

_"Judai! You remembered!" the demonic monster answered with tears of joy._

_The boy turned his head to face someone else. That someone else looked exactly the same as him except for the hair and eye colours. The twin smiled, a rare sight in itself._

_"You kept your promise, Judai," the twin said and Judai nodded._

_"I remembered, Haou-sama! My mother and father dragged me through so many treatments to get rid of my memory of you two that I forgot," he apologized and hung his head. The twin smiled again and ruffled Judai'shair like he did when the boy was little._

_"It wasn't your fault was it?"_

_Juudai shook his head and smiled before laughing._

_"No, it isn't,"_

_The demonic monster, now known as Yubel, hugged both of them. "We can be together again,"_

_The three exchanged smiles and hugs._

* * *

_**April 4th, 2021**_

_"Let's go get our fortunes told!"_

_"Aren't we a little too old for that?"_

_"Hey! I saw another adult go in!"_

_"Fine,"_

_They walked up (the other floated) to the door and found a note._

'Closed for a birthday, come back tomorrow.'

"_Oh well,"_

_"How stupid of me to forget that today is Miss Ishtaaru's birthday!"_

_"You mean the sister of the Battle City finalist Malik Ishtaaru?"_

_"Yeah, her. She was a finalist too!"_

_"Why didn't you tell me we were getting fortunes told by her?"_

_"I didn't think that was important,"_

_A sigh. "Let's come back tomorrow, then,"_

_They walked off with one of them complaining about how hungry he was._

_'Miss Ishtaaru' watched from her windowsill and smiled before turning away. "Great troubles lie ahead, Mr. Yuki,"_

* * *

_**(Present Time: August 20th, 2023) The Leaky Cauldron, London, England**_

"This place is actually famous?" Johan asked skeptically, looking at the old run-down building.

The building was gray and old, with wooden planks peeling off the sides and the windows barely hanging on to the walls. A tiny sign of a stereotypical witch with a large nose and a pointy hat with her cauldron hung above the door, and that seemed like the only sturdy thing on the building. As if on cue, it swayed on an imaginary wind.

"The letter said so," Judai answered and looked down at the piece of parchment in his hands.

"Don't judge a book by its cover," Jim replied and walked up to the door before opening it and walking inside without so much as missing a beat. The three outside shrugged and grabbed their luggage before following suit.

The place was filled with robed people ("They are wearing dresses!" "They're robes, Judai.") and witches with pointy hats. The spoons were twirling themselves, books were flying, chairs automatically moved on their own, and Jim almost dropped his bag at the sight. Was that... a stick?

"This is weirder than weird," Judai stated and the others couldn't help but agree. The barman waved them over.

"I'm assuming you're the new teachers?" he asked, and they nodded. "Dumbledore told me to arrange rooms for you, numbers six, eight, nine, and ten." He handed them the keys to each one.

"The other arrived a week ago, room seven. Name's Tom if you ever need anything," Tom finished before going back to polishing his cups.

For a brief moment, Judai thought he saw a girl with _black_ hair and _black_ eyes staring at him through a reflection on a mug. He closed his eyes and shook his head. _'I'm starting to hallucinate'_ he thought as he followed Johan and the others up to his room.

"I'm getting some sleep, don't you just hate jet lag?" Johan muttered as he stepped into his room. The other two had already gone down the hallway to the other rooms they had been given.

As Judai fell asleep that night, he didn't see the same girl through the mirror. He saw nothing.

* * *

_A carriage pulled up in front of a huge castle and the coach got off his horse to open the door for whoever was inside. Before he even got the handle, however, it swung open by itself and a girl with black hair and black eyes wearing a very puffy, formal princess dress stepped out. She looked no older than 15 despite her amazingly tall height. She breathed in the scent of the fresh air before running towards the palace._

_"Princess, please come back! And walk, it is not polite to run!" her coach called after her but she merely ignored him and sped up. She couldn't wait until she saw __**him!**__ The prince of this castle; she heard so many things! The family portraits that littered the long hallways convinced her even more on how handsome and cute the prince looked. _

_She sped past the guards, through double doors, and landed herself into the courtyard. Her eyes sparkled when she saw the prince who was practicing swordplay._

_"Hey no fair Haou!" a feminine voice said and the princess stopped in her tracks. "You cheated and tripped me!"_

_"You gotta be expecting surprise attacks!" the prince named 'Haou' replied, laughing at the girl. "If you don't, you're not going to be a good warrior, Aurelia!"_

_"You sound like Chronos-sensei now!" the girl now identified as Aurelia responded. A look of mock horror washed over Haou's face._

_"Yuck! What am I saying? Unclean, unclean!" he said as he started to dust himself off as if the fleas had gotten him. He stopped abruptly before both of them burst into laughter._

_"Can we do this again tomorrow? I can invite Yubel with me!" Aurelia said as they put the weapons back._

_"Great!" Haou smiled before he smirked. "Then we can fight a three-way! Two boys against a girl, we are so going to kick your butt!"_

_Aurelia shook her head as she took her chest plate off and scoffed. "In your dreams, Haou,"_

_"No, in __**your **__dreams," The two teens laughed before Aurelia waved as she took off into the forest, giving him a wink along the way. Haou's face turned beet red before he regained himself and sighed. The princess that still stood there that watched the scene had a look of jealousy on her face._

_Someone had gotten to the prince before she did! And that someone was going to pay, very dearly._

* * *

"No! Phantom get back here!"

"Meow."

A black cat dashed out of room number seven and into room number six, where the resident former Osiris Red was sleeping. The cat slid under the bed just as the woman who was screaming for her cat came in. After a quick search, she figured she must have been mistaken and went out. The cat peeked out from her hiding place before jumping onto the bed where a brown-haired man with an orange patch on top of his hair was sleeping.

"Mew," the cat said as she jumped on his stomach trying to get him to wake. He groaned and tried to swat away the kitten. "Meow!"

Judai opened his eyes to the morning sun and the first thing he noticed was a cat jumping on his stomach. He put the cat on the floor and got up. He stretched and yawned, all the while rubbing his eyes. The cat let out a purr at the sight and Judai looked at it strangely.

_/./That cat seems... familiar somehow/./_

_/Huh?/_

_/./Nevermind, get up already/./_

Judai was about to change and kick the cat out (not literally) until his door burst open and in came Aqua.

"Judai have you seen my –Phantom!" she hurriedly came over and scooped the cat up in her arms and turned back to Judai. "Sorry about that, and sorry if my cat caused you any trouble." Judai just smiled and shook it off.

"No worries, I was about to shoo her out anyways," he replied and went to his trunk to get his clothes out.

"We're buying supplies in an hour so please hurry and get down to breakfast!" she said and quickly left the room, closing the door shut behind her.

Judai sighed and got changed before heading downstairs to get some breakfast, joining in on Johan's and Jim's arguments on fossils. When he left the room, he didn't see the girl standing beside his bed looking at him with mournful eyes.

* * *

_"Duck!"_

_Whoosh._

_"Under!"_

_Slacckk._

_"Heads up!"_

_Clank._

_Haou landed with a backflip behind Yubel who was barely breathing at this point. The two were training, waiting for Aurelia to come by already. She was late. Yubel dropped his sword and collapsed on the ground, breathing hard. He rolled over to face Haou._

_"This is precisely why I choose archery over swordplay!" he exclaimed, "So much work! How can you keep this up?"_

_"You know Yubel, there is a little word called practice," a new voice cut in, "Repeat after me, pract-ice." Aurelia said as she jumped over the fence and landed with a thud. She stood and dusted herself off while walking over._

_"What are you doing over the garden fence? There is a main door you can enter," Haou said and threw a sword at Aurelia. She yelped and fumbled around with the sharp object before she finally had a tight grip on it._

_"I don't know why, but the guards said I couldn't come in and when I asked why, they said it was the princess's order, who's she?"_

_Haou smacked his head. "Oh, my father had yet another princess come over to see if she qualified to be my wife. Princess Mesuki of the Sakura Kingdom. She is just like Princess Rei! She just won't leave me alone until I told her I __**really **__needed to get to class or I'll be late, but everyone knows I have no class during this time," he sighed and sat down on the ground. "At least she's better than Rei."_

_Aurelia tsked and dropped her sword, picking up Yubel's thirty-pound compound bow and pulling back the string a few times, the pulley system giving a squeak once in a while, ("Hey! Don't break it!") before dropping it down and laying on her back. _

_"Y'know, you can just tell your father that you don't want to see these different princesses," she said after a moment's time. "Doesn't your opinion matter? You are the future king after all."_

_Haou sighed and looked at the setting sun colouring the sky with bright pinks, oranges, reds, and purples. So beautiful, yet such an illusion. _

_"Oh I __**wish **__it could be that easy. If I had it my way, that princess would have been out of here faster than you can say Duel Monster," he got up and stretched, putting his sword into a nearby wooden rack. "You guys need to head home; it's getting dark. The streets aren't very nice to girls and children when they're dark."_

_With a final wave, Yubel and Aurelia hopped over the fence and headed home._

_Haou looked at the almost star-filled sky just in time to see a comet. "I wish, that me, Yubel, and Aurelia would always be together like this," he said and sighed, "But we all know it's __**not**__ going to happen anyway..."_

_Black hair swished behind the garden fence, the visiting princess having heard everything._

* * *

_**Diagon Alley, London, England**_

"We should exchange our money first,"

"It seems logical, we don't know what money they use,"

"Alright, bank first then,"

"One problem: Where _is_ the bank?"

The quartet was right in front of the wall that would lead them back to the Leaky Cauldron, and Aqua had stayed back to make them find the places on their own without help. Judai was very bored at this point and leaned against the wall, humming a tune that sounded suspiciously like opera.

"Judai, what the heck are you humming?" Johan asked, a little annoyed that they didn't know where things were and was a bit not too fond of the tune. Judai looked up from his humming.

"Huh? Oh - Oh!" he shook his head and realized what he had just been doing. "Sorry about that, it's called Lilium. I accidentally knocked over a box that Aqua had in her room and it started playing this melody. I think it was an opening theme to an anime too, very bloody one in fact."

"Has Haou been rubbing off on you?" Johan asked and turned around completely to face Judai who shrugged.

"I don't think so, at least. The anime earlier I was talking about? Bloody. **And people get their limbs torn off. Amazing, right?**" It was kind of obvious that Haou had said the last part and not Judai. For the boy had very, _very_ blood thirsty gold possessed eyes right about now. "**Though I have to admit that the blood is a little too bright, should be darker. And that ripped out heart was too light also, could be worse, though.**"

The other three right now felt about to throw up and gag and pretty much cough up their lungs. Who wouldn't be though? Talking about tearing off limbs and ripped out hearts AND looking completely normal while doing that; any normal person would have fainted from shock.

"I should have never asked," Johan said as he tried regained his composure and to do what he was supposed to, which was _not _drop down and scream bloody murder. Determined not to think about the stuff Haou had just blurted out, he continued. "We should ask for directions to the bank."

"**Right over there**," Haou pointed to a huge white marble building and switched over with Judai who looked a little dazed.

"For the record, Serge, Haou is definitely rubbing off on you-saurus," Kenzan commented as Judai scratched his head sheepishly.

"It wasn't my idea to watch it," Judai said with shifty eyes, and Jim sighed and turned away from the group.

"Let's just go and get our money first," he said and gestured to the tall white marble building. The others gave no complaints and followed him.

They followed the Australian past the two goblins who bowed as they entered, Johan stopping to read the warning message on one of the large doors. A short 'no' followed in his head as he continued walking in, someone else sighing in boredom in reply, obviously wanting something.

Johan stepped in last in line behind Judai who was behind Kenzan who was behind Jim, waiting for it to speed and move up. What seemed like hours, which was only ten minutes, to Johan before the line _finally _stepped up and up until it was Jim's turn. Johan, whose patience was running a bit thin unlike his usual self thanks to his headache due to the new magic, decided to strike up a conversation with the person in front of him, Judai.

"So Judai, how much did you bring?" he asked casually, or at least as casual he _could _sound with his pounding headache, he would bet his whole bank account that Judai was suffering much worse than he, being the 'leader' and all. But the former Osiris Red was focusing so much on the goblins that the headache didn't even scratch him in the least. All of the shock of dealing with new magic went to Haou instead.

"Nothing at all. Haou says that his family has an account, so I solely relied on him," he cheerfully replied and Johan nodded, before he realized something.

"Wait, if you're withdrawing from an account, shouldn't you be over there?" the blue-haired gem user pointed towards another desk with a goblin sitting on it with the sign 'Withdrawals Here' attached to the front of it.

Judai flushed and scratched the back of his head, saying a quick 'thank you' before hopping out of line and scurrying off. Turns out passing time by having a conversation with Judai was worth it because it was Johan's turn next, and he tossed his pouch onto the counter.

"Seventy Eight Thousand Euros!" the goblin shouted as the other goblin on the scale started stuffing the desired amount of money into the pouch before handing it back to him. Johan hurriedly grabbed it and joined Judai, who was about to follow the goblin into another set of doors which no doubt led to the vaults. Jim and Kenzan followed shortly after realizing that Judai was missing.

Judai waved them over, "Come on guys, or I'm going to leave you here!" he ushered as they all fitted into the small cart.

After everyone had sat down, the cart rushed off at a breakneck speed. Johan felt his lunch coming back up. After a long (and uncomfortable) ride, everyone hopped out as the goblin took a small dusty key from Judai's hand and put it into the keyhole of huge double doors, unlocking all the mechanisms guarding it.

"Welcome to Vault number three," it stated as it opened to reveal heaps of gold ("Holy shi—" "Language, Judai" A roll of eyes, "Yes, mother") coins littered almost every nook and cranny along with vases, and on some occasions: family paintings and portraits.

Wasting no time, Judai scooped up a bag full of galleons, tied the string to seal it closed, and pulled it over his back, "Time to go shopping!"

* * *

The group of four stood in front of Madame Malkin's Robes For All Occasions, and Judai looked skeptical as a wave of disgust and horror washed over him.

"I am not wearing a dress," he declared and instantly began walking away, but Jim tugged at his collar before dragging him in.

"For the last time Judai, it's a robe, not a dress, and it's a part of the dress code," Jim said again for what he hoped to be the last time. Judai gave a pout and crossed his arms, silently vowing not to speak to Jim again until the school year started. Boy was revenge sweet.

"Fine, but I want mine to be red!" he childishly retorted as he was forcefully dragged into the dressing room and left there.

_/./No, not red. Black with a gold trim/./ _Haou argued and gave his opinion.

_/Red!/ _Judai fought back.

_/./Black with a gold trim!/./_

_/Red!/_

_/./Black. With. A gold. Trim././_

_/Fine, you killjoy./_

Satisfied with getting what he wanted, Haou sunk back into the recesses of his soul room, content. As Madame Malkin finished up the last of the measurements, Judai made the request.

"Um, excuse me, but could you me two robes instead of one? One being dark red and other being black with a gold trim... somehow?"

Madame Malkin smiled, "Of course, deary, it'll take a bit longer but I'm sure you can wait, right?"

Judai nodded and stepped out as Johan came in; he faintly heard what the Gem Master ordered.

"Please frill up the robe's sleeves and trim the edges with teal," Johan said and Judai sweat dropped, what was with Johan and frills? Every outfit he had on him always had frills, with the exception of the one when Jehu was in control during Dark World. Jim saw his look on the way out and asked what was wrong with him.

"Frills, lace, and embroidery," Judai replied somewhat darkly and sat down in one of the seats. "Especially the frills."

* * *

After getting the necessary outfits and a few extra clothes for good measure, the quartet walked into Flourish and Blotts to find a book for their class before school began and supply lists were sent out. But all Judai did was round the corner, _look _at the books, round another corner, pay no heed to any other books, and came out of the Defense Against the Dark Arts section empty handed. Kenzan, who had already figured that he wouldn't need a book, was leaning on the wall near the door when he saw Judai come out.

"Why are you empty handed-saurus?" he asked and Judai smiled faintly, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"Nothing suits what I'm going to teach, heck, there is not even a _theory _book on what I'm going to teach," Judai replied and gave another glance at the section before sighing.

"Serge, do you even know what the word theory means-don?"

"Um... No?"

Kenzan sighed and got off the wall, this was going to take a _lllooonnnggg_ time.

* * *

Jim looked through the History of Magic section and the Ancient Runes sections. He concluded that the books on History of Magic were focused almost mainly on goblin wars (he pitied the children who had to spend their whole school year learning that), then there was something about an Elder Wand being passed around, and finally, there were things on troll wars. He sighed and picked a random book off the self from the Ancient Runes section and skimmed through it. When he was done, he figured that this book would be enough for his lesson on rune reading and headed to the cashier to order a set of books for the children.

When he got out of the shelves infested with books however, he noticed that Johan had almost five to ten books on him and was having a bit of trouble balancing them all before he finally tripped and fell over. Jim, being the good and kind person he was, helped him up and then promptly stuffed all of the books back in Johan's hands before heading up to the shop keeper.

"Oh yes, help me up when I fell _because _of the books, then stuff them back in my arms in an unorderly fashion," came Johan's witty comment filled with sarcasm. "It's nice to know you like me _so much_."

Jim only chuckled.

* * *

Jim and Kenzan had split into a different group to do something else so that they could cover more ground. So here Johan was, standing in front of the two pet shops along with Judai. _Magical Menagerie _and _Eeylops Owl Emporium_. Simple pet shops, nothing more. But Judai just _had _to make a comment that shattered the peace that was lasting.

"That one sounds like it sells glasses—"

"Judai,"

"That one sounds like it sells cages for pixies—"

"Judai,"

"Then that one sounds like it sells barn stuff—"

"Judai,"

"And that one sounds like it sells torture devices,"

"Ju -" _Wait, torture devices? What is goin' on through his head?_"- dai."

"Yes, Johan?" Judai finally answered as he stopped his 'this and that' game of names and what he thought they sold.

"Of all things, why _torture devices?_"

* * *

_**Duel Academia Island, Domino City, Japan**_

Tenjouin Asukawas a morning person who awoke with the sun and enjoyed the scenery of the outside world while sipping a hot cup of coffee. She was a modern person, living in luxury in one of the spare teachers' rooms in the Obelisk Blue dorms. Every so often she would get a visit from a few curious birds who wanted a look inside and she would gladly open the window for them. So, it came as a surprise to her when an _owl,_ of all things, smashed right into her window with mail attached to its legs.

"What the hell?" she said as she accidentally dropped her coffee cup and its contents spilled onto her pajamas. Now Asuka wasn't one to curse, as she rarely did, but in times when an owl appeared on her window in _the middle of the day and made her drop her coffee_, she didn't get so much of choice but to curse.

She gently pushed the window open as the owl got up and flew in, perching itself on her bed post, the letter had, by now, had fallen off its legs. Asuka picked it up and saw that it was actually addressed to her. She turned the envelope upside down and a paper fell out along with a few owl treats. She pushed the treats aside and began reading the letter.

_Hello Asuka!_

_You're probably wondering why an owl is delivering this of all things. The answer is… it's a secret! But anyway, guess what? Johan and I got ourselves a job at a magic school! Isn't that cool? Kenzan, Jim, and Aqua got a job here as well. It's hard to believe that I'm a teacher, right? Tell Fubuki I said hello, oh and also Rei and Martin. I'm really excited to start teaching!_

_Write back soon!  
~Judai_

_P.S. There are some owl treats included in here. Please give them to Kuriboh, my owl? It saves me from a huffy owl when she comes home. Thanks!_

"Being saved from a huffy owl? That's Judai all right."

* * *

Johan looked through the Arithmancy books he bought for himself and read through them. Most of what it was what 'muggle' college students took; they were the standard stuff in Mathematics and Calculus. Johan always faired pretty well in those classes, so he was able to get the gist of what they were trying to say.

Since The Leaky Cauldron wasn't exactly 'made of magic' Johan's dark blue laptop sat on the end table near his bed, buzzing its day away. Johan stopped reading and then looked at his computer, then back at the books, computer, books, computer, books.

In a very unlike-Johan way, he smirked before finally focusing on the computer and started typing.

"Hello 'magical' binary," he said.

* * *

_"Y-Yubel! We told you not to d-do it!"_

_The now demonic angel smiled at the two before her. "Someone had to do it, and now I'll always be able to protect you forever, Haou. You were like a brother and a best friend to me, and I'll happily repay the debt."_

_The time was dawn when the sun was just rising, the setting was on a rock near the ocean, and the emotion was sorrow and surprise. Haou was choking back sobs, Aurelia was on the ground and not the rock, already breaking down. _

_Tears finally broke out on the small prince and the two humans started crying more and more with each passing second. Yubel's eyes softened and hugged them both close with her wings._

_"I chose this, Haou, Aurelia, it was on my own free will. Please don't cry," she reassured but that just made them sob harder. Haou was the first to regain himself, however._

_"But, can we still be friends?" he choked out after composing himself._

_"Always,"_

_"I promise, Yubel, Aurelia, we'll be friends forever. My love is reserved only for you and nobody else," he vowed. Aurelia wiped her tears with her sleeve and smiled lightly, though it wasn't back up to full speed yet. With a silent pinky promise, the trio shook hands/claws, agreeing that they would be like this until the day they die._

_The fuming visiting princess narrowed her eyes at two in particular, Yubel and Aurelia. She would have to get rid of them, and soon._

_Until the day we die._

* * *

_**Author's Notes:**_

I wanted this to be a serious chapter, but it turned out to be comic relief instead... I am getting crushed by homework, and have at least about five projects due Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. Don't you just love school (sarcasm)?

To top it all off, my Firefox AND Opera browsers are working up so I have no choice but to use the slow Internet Explorer 7.0 right now. I haven't bothered with upgrading it to IE 8.0 because I heard it focuses more on Pop-Up Blocking, Safety, and all that other crap so it's even MORE slower. Ugh, I'm starting to hate the new IEs and have a feeling it's going to get worse when IE 9.0 comes out, if it ever does.

Sorry if I seem cranky, but I've been staying up a lot more lately to finish projects and homework. I even have a hard time taking care of my Neopets and Ponystars because of all the shit I have to finish. Yes, I do have a Neopets, just, don't ask.

_**Last Minute Message:**_

Constructive critism is always welcomed.  
Flames will **not** be tolerated, it will just show how immature you are.  
**DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW!**_ Just click the green button _down there and type in something good about the story (don't forget to click submit)!

_**Review Goal Before The Next Chapter Is Posted:**_ _At least 4-5 reviews like last time. I expect there be at least that many or no chapter._


	4. Mary Had A Little Lamb

_**Summary:**__ Dark forces are at work, but then again, they have always been at work. Lord Voldemort seeks to control the ancient "magic" wielded by the Herald of Gentle Darkness, and it just so happens that the Herald is Harry's new DADA professor. But what is a King without his court? There's more than just one new professor, and more than just one power at large._

_**Rating:**__ T_

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own YuGiOh or Harry Potter. Rights to © Kazuki Takashi and J.K. Rowling_

_**Author's Note:** This is the only chapter that I didn't rewrite. I just substituted a few words and made some indents where I needed them. However, please do check out the details in the author's note on the next chapter regarding how this story will go._

* * *

**You Can't Turn Back  
**_**-(Mary Had A Little Lamb)-**_

* * *

"My Lord, I have found valuable information that may help in your conquest," the Elder Malfoy reported, two books lying next to each other in front of his feet. One was a dusty tomb, the title having faded away with time, and the other's words were just barely hanging on with only a few letters shown. But one word on the whole book was still shiny and metallic-like.

"What is it?" the snake-like man hissed from his chair in the ominous room, too dark for Lucius's liking, but no one would dare to say that in front of the Dark Lord.

Lucius hesitated. "There are two pieces of information we found in the ancient text, one on something called the Orichalcos and someone called 'Haou'," he replied.

"Go on,"

"Apparently the Orichalcos is a stone that can steal souls should someone lose in a duel. There was also something on monsters, but it never went into depth," Lucius started and began to quote something from the book. "'The Orichalcos, was the destroyer of the sunken city of Atlantis'"

The Dark Lord became interested and leaned forward a bit to show it. "And of this person called Haou?" he asked.

"This book was a bit more detailed, my lord," Lucius replied. "'Whoever shall possess the power of the Haou can save, rule, or destroy the world.' There is a high chance that the Haou's soul will be reincarnated. The book also pointed out that once the reincarnation has experienced the emotions anger, anguish, doubt, sorrow, and hate the power of Haou's soul will awaken and take over. If the reincarnation can take hold and force himself back into control, he will have access to all of Haou's power."

"Lucius, send out the Death Eaters in search for the Orichalcos stone, and you, Lucius, will find me more information on this Haou."

"Yes, my lord."

* * *

"Wow,"

"It's huge, mate!"

"It's so…"

"I'm hungry,"

"Wow,"

Judai, Jim, Johan, Kenzan, and Aqua stood in front of the large castle known as Hogwarts. The roofs were a cylinder shape and a very light pale blue (Aqua nodded in satisfaction) with stray arches here and there. The paint on the towers was a lovely marble white and Hogwarts itself sat on a lone hill watching over the barren plain of the Forbidden Forest nearby. The river _always_ had ripples (and sometimes a light splash) as the boat they were sitting in rowed itself forward.

"It's bigger than Haou's tower," Judai marveled as he heard a grunt inside his head.

_Che. _Haou mumbled inside Judai's mind. _Show-offs._

"I can't wait to see the inside!" Aqua almost squealed. She looked like a child who just ate candy the first time in their lives. She marveled at the castle a bit more. "A girl could get used to this."

The four boys sighed at her antics as she jumped up and down on the boat. Of course, jumping on a boat had its consequences as Aqua lost footing and fell into the water. The boys left her alone knowing she could swim as the boat pulled on. Soon the small transport touched land and everyone got off. The boat went back to the other side of the shore when they were all out. Aqua was busy dragging herself onto the beach before heading over to them as she dried.

"I am never going back down there again," she grumbled, flicking a stray fish out of her blue hair and back into the water.

"It's your fault," Jim pointed out and Aqua grumbled more. The five headed up into the castle with a grumpy Aqua. Johan, Jim, and Kenzan made sure to stay away – far, far, _far_ away while the oblivious Judai looked at them with question marks over his head.

"What wrong with you guys?" Judai asked.

"We just don't want to bother Aqua," Kenzan said nervously.

"Maybe she's just grumpy about falling into the water," Judai said obliviously.

The three exchanged looks. "Or maybe it's just the wrong time of the month," Jim offered and Johan stopped in his tracks and starting coughing.

When they arrived at the entrance they were greeted by a stern-looking old woman wearing a black robe and a pointy black hat. She looked at them (particularly Judai's hair) and nodded. "I am Minerva McGonagall and you must be the new professors," she analyzed, her tone strict and accepting no comments or arguments. "Very well, follow me, I have been tasked to show you your rooms and around Hogwarts. First we will have lunch where you will meet with the other professors currently here."

Judai smiled at the thought of lunch since he had been hungry since they had gotten on the train. Minerva nodded once and then turned their back to them, heading into the large castle. The five followed, observing in silent awe everything about the castle. From the floor to the ceiling, everything was _stone_, elegantly and beautifully carved stone.

As they walked down the hallway the five also noticed that the pictures _moved_. There were portraits of men and women, young and old, sceneries of long ago, and some of them were of mythical creatures.

Minerva stopped in front of two grand doors that were a little bit too large for Johan's tastes ("What? Don't you guys feel tiny compared to these doors?"). Slowly and dramatically the doors pulled open by themselves and revealed a large dining hall. Of course almost all of the seats were empty since it was not the start of the school year yet and only a few people were littered among the staff table.

Aqua took a look at the ceiling and gasped. "You know, I'm going to have a heart attack when it rains, I really am," she stated once she saw that the ceiling reflected the sky above. Jim chuckled at her misery until a glare was pointed in his direction.

* * *

Aqua fell onto her bed. "Oh God!_ Così tanto da fare oggi!_ I'm dead _tired, _my head hurts like a _mother,_ and I got stomach cramps the size of _Russia!_ Ugh…" she groaned into her pillow. Aurelia got out in spirit-form and sat on the edge of the bed. She smirked at Aqua's misery.

"Ha! Don't be telling _me,_ about it. I already know how it feels," she said though she didn't sound very sympathetic. Aqua just let out another 'Uggghhh' and rolled over, keeping the pillow in her face.

"If you're not going to comfort me on this, at least tell me where the herbal tea I brought with me is. _E cazzo fa male!_" Aqua cursed and Aurelia's smirked just widened even more. Aurelia crossed her legs and her arms and gave a small huff.

"And you expect me to know where you packed your tea and your frilly blue pajamas?" Aurelia replied with a knowing smirk. Aqua glared and threw a pillow at her but it just phased through. Aurelia leaned over and patted her on the head then disappeared.

"Of course she knows where I packed it!" Aqua groaned in frustration and stood up, walking painfully to her suitcase and flinging it open. "She was there with me when I packed and reminded me to bring them!" After a few minutes of digging around she found the said tea.

Aurelia appeared again, leaning against the wall. "You too cranky to boil water or something?" she asked.

"I'm pretty sure I heard Minerva say something about portable maids," Aqua grumbled and tried to rack her head to remember what she had to do to call a 'house elf'. "Ah! That's it! Jane!"

There was a loud crack and both host and spirit jumped at the noise. There stood a timid-looking… _creature_ with big blue eyes and a small body covered in rags. "You called, mistress?" the elf asked.

Aqua took one look at it before giving out orders. "Here, these are tea leaves. I want water boiled and for you to make tea out of these," she said without skipping a beat. "I also want one cup of tea on every seventeenth of every month on the end table after I wake up and brush my teeth."

"Yes, mistress!" Jane saluted and disappeared with another crack, Aqua and Aurelia flinching again.

"I'm never going to get used to that," Aurelia commented, rubbing her ears as Aqua hummed in agreement.

* * *

Unlike with their female companion, Judai, Johan, Jim, and Kenzan had to share quarters. That did not mean, however, that they had to share a bed. There were separate beds available for them in separate rooms.

Jim took the room closest to the bottom of the staircase. He was an early riser and did not want to disturb anyone by walking down the stairs at five or six in the morning. He also claimed Karen liked to roll around a lot at night and did not want to wake anyone up because of heavy thumping noises.

Johan took the one second closest to the staircase. Unlike his "twin" Judai, he too was an early riser like Jim. Except that Johan didn't always wake at five – he woke at about six or seven. He would then spend about five minutes or so lying in bed being groggy before deciding it was time to get up.

Kenzan got the room the second closest to the top of the staircase. While he did tend (more like always) to oversleep he always awoke _a lot_ earlier than Judai did. That, and because of how loud he is when he comes down the stairs. The guy weighs a ton because of his growing muscles and likes to _stomp down the staircase like a dinosaur._

Judai had, of course, the room at the top of the staircase. He slept like a log and would probably sleep through the whole week if they let him. One of Kenzan's many complaints about having a room nearest to Judai's was that Judai always slept through the alarm clock. It would irritate the drill sergeant immensely and disturb his rest. Judai was one damn heavy sleeper.

Such was the case when it was mid-afternoon the next day and Jim, Johan, and Kenzan were hanging out in the lounge while Judai was still sleeping upstairs.

"I don't get how he does it," Johan groaned, leaning into the back of his recliner. "Even if he is a heavy sleeper how can he sleep through an alarm clock ringing right next to his ears?"

It was then there were footsteps coming down the staircase before the other two could make a comment.

"Judai! You're early-saurus!" Kenzan exclaimed. The other two looked at each other as if it was the end of the world. Not that they didn't know what _that_ felt like. Judai stopped at the bottom of the stairs and opened his eyes. The three in the lounge were greeted with golden orbs instead of the usual friendly chocolate brown.

"**The idiot is still sleeping**," Haou said groggily, making a 180 degree turn after he realized he had just walked down in Judai's pajamas. They weren't embarrassing or had any patterns on them (Haou had made absolutely sure of that when they went to buy clothes) but were plain, dark red silk pajamas. He headed back up the stairs again.

"Should we be worried?" Johan asked cautiously.

"Nah, mate, he's harmless," Jim reassured.

Kenzan decided to not tell them about the _Saw_ movie collection hidden in Judai's trunk.

* * *

The month passed by fairly quickly after the new professors had settled in. Kenzan got to meet the local wildlife ("Kenzan? Kenzan-kun? Are you alright?" "He's fainted") and everyone had time to decorate and familiarize themselves with their classrooms ("Judai, what is _that?_" "Hm? Oh that's an Iron Maiden. You see back in medieval Europe they were used as torture—" "Stop right there. I don't need to know anymore"). Jim had some of the artifacts he dug up shipped to Hogwarts and Johan was, on certain days, seen writing ones and zeros on his chalk board then erasing and writing them all over again.

Aqua's classroom had been switching between traditional Asian and modern European a couple of times ("You should make up your mind…" "I have! But the room hasn't!" "Wait, what?"). Kenzan had been getting to know the creatures he needed to teach about ("So how's your work going?" "Well apparently they _look_ like giant brutes but when treated carefully they become soft little puppies-saurus," "… I pray for you, Kenzan-kun…").

And then it became September first.

* * *

_**Author's Notes:**_

I'M SO SORRRYYY! I GOT OBSESSED WITH HETALIA! But you can't blame me; I've been searching up history and buying Hetalia merchandise. _"For the whole year?"_ Well… um… YEAH! *shifty eyes*

/gets hit by rotten tomato/ Okay, I deserved that for not updating for a whole year.

_**Last Minute Message:**_

Constructive criticism is always welcomed.  
Flames will _**not**_ be tolerated, it will just show how immature you are.  
**DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW!** Just click the blue writing with the bubble down there and type in something good about the story (don't forget to click submit)!

_**Review Goal Before The Next Chapter Is Posted:**__ At least 4-5 reviews like last time. I expect there be at least that many or no chapter._


	5. Ring Around the Rosie

_**Summary:**__ Dark forces are at work, but then again, they have always been at work. Lord Voldemort seeks to control the ancient "magic" wielded by the Herald of Gentle Darkness, and it just so happens that the Herald is Harry's new DADA professor. But what is a King without his court? There's more than just one new professor, and more than just one power at large.  
__**Rating:**__ T (may be bumped up in later chapters)  
__**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own YuGiOh or Harry Potter. Rights to © Kazuki Takashi and J.K. Rowling  
__**Author's Note:**__ OKAY PEOPLE PLEASE READ THIS AS IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT AND PERTAINS TO HOW THIS STORY WILL GO._

_First of all, all the previous chapters (with the exception of chapter three) have been rewritten to fit up to my standards. Generally, it is the same content but with different words and phrasing on how I describe things. BUT, __**the prologue has been completely scrapped and rewritten from scratch**__, so I suggest you go back and read it._

_Secondly, I promised myself I would update this story more often __**two years ago**__. Yeah, that didn't work out so well. Part of it was because the thought of me writing 6,000 words per chapter turned me off. So, in favor of quicker updates, I have scrapped that idea and instead you might get a 2,000 word chapter every two weeks. I update sporadically, so expect some updates within days of each other and others within a few weeks._

_**I am freezing all the other stories until I am done with this one**__. I can actually promise to be more frequent in updating, now. I hate it when other stories stop updating, so why should I put you all through this?_

_**Concerning Aqua, my OC**__. I want to focus the story on the actual plot and none of her shenanigans, as I realized she was becoming too much of a Mary Sue in the last story. She is just a human now, no half-half thing going on. Though I'm keeping Aurelia because I planned this story with her in mind. She's relevant to the plot._

_Also, concerning duels, I don't know if you guys actually want to read them, so leave me a review/message giving me your opinion? Should I actually write them out or just give you the outcome?_

_I can proudly say __**this story is off hiatus**__._

* * *

**You Can't Turn Back  
**_**-(Ring Around the Rosie)-**_

* * *

_Everyone around the castle knew Aurelia. The servants, the maids, the butlers, the chefs, the guards, and even the king knew her. It wasn't rare for her to spend a night at the castle either or see her playing with the prince. No one really knew how she even got here or how she had met the prince. Most of them assumed she was an orphan and was brought in as a playmate for the prince and possibly a future concubine. Everyone just accepted her presence and went on with their lives like normal._

_When Mesuki learned of this, she ordered her personnel to do some research on the girl. Nothing came up, as the staff in the castle didn't know anything about her other than her name, her frequent appearances around the castle, and pranks with the prince. She had no surname, and when asked, Aurelia claimed amnesia._

"_Who are you, really?" Mesuki decided to ask her face-to-face one day. Aurelia turned her head around with a piece of buttered toast sticking out of her mouth. Mesuki made a disgusted face at this._

"_Hm?" Aurelia quickly finished her food and swallowed before speaking. "I'm just me, and that's all I'll ever be."_

"_No, where are you from?" Mesuki pressed, determined to get answers._

"_Um… the village a little ways from here? The staff thinks I'm an orphan, but honestly I don't know. There are a lot of rumors circulating around about me. You could look into those,"_

"_Rumors are just rumors,"_

"_Well, yeah, you are right about that…"_

_Mesuki had not gotten any information with her confrontation other than to look into the rumors spreading around the castle. She already knew the rumors, researched them, and still found out nothing._

_She was as much as an enigma as the prince himself._

* * *

_**Great Hall, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, September 1**__**st**_

"Woah," Jim whistled, leaning back into his seat. "This place is a full house!"

Indeed, many students were currently filing in through the large doors of the Great Hall and taking their seats at their respective tables. It was a wonder that the tables have not ran out of seats yet, since more and more students were filing in by the minute, not to mention the fact that there would be quite a lot of first years to add to the mix as well.

Most of the students that came in glanced at the teacher's table and did a double take at the five new faces among them. Jim raised his cup sometimes, as if saying 'hello' to the students staring at the new line of professors. They usually looked away quickly and gossiped to their friends about what was going on.

"And all of these students we will have to teach," Aqua replied, blinking at the sheer amount of people. She knew the school had a huge population—she just didn't expect it to be _this big_.

"It's almost like Duel Academia," Judai added helpfully. "Except with more people. How are people sorted into dorms?"

"Through a personality test," Johan answered. He leaned on his elbows and surveyed the students. "They put a hat on your head and it reads your mind or something."

"That seems a little… invasive-don," Kenzan commented.

"Oh, it's beginning, shhh," Judai interrupted as he leaned forward in anticipation.

A raggedy old hat was placed upon a stool that sat in the center of the room. Immediately, all conversation hushed. The rip near the hat's brim split open as the hat burst into song.

"I have seen everything," Jim said, watching the animate hat in fascination. The others could only nod as the hat kept singing.

_But this year I'll go further,  
Listen closely to my song:  
Though condemned I am to split you  
Still I worry that it's wrong,_

_Though I must fulfil my duty  
And must quarter every year  
Still I wonder whether Sorting  
May not bring the end I fear._

_Oh, know the perils, read the signs,  
The warning history shows,  
For our Hogwarts is in danger  
From external, deadly foes_

_And we must unite inside her  
Or we'll crumble from within  
I have told you, I have warned you...  
Let the Sorting now begin._

With the hat's song finished, the Great Hall was filled with applause, though it was also overshadowed by the mutterings and whispers.

"I'm guessing the last segment of the hat's song is something new," Johan said, blinking as he was able to hear tail ends of the some of the conversations.

Professor McGonagall stood next to the stool, one hand holding the hat up in the air and another holding the long list of first years. She cleared her throat, and the murmuring stopped. With one last look at the four house tables, she lowered her gaze to the piece of parchment in front of her and read off the first name.

"Abercrombie, Euan,"

And so the first years came up one by one, each having their turn at the stool as the house pricked their minds and determined which house would fit them best. Aqua's eyebrow raised in amusement as she heard Judai's stomach growl from hunger, the former Osiris Red gave her a sheepish smile before turning his attention back to the Sorting.

Finally, 'Zeller, Rose' was Sorted into Hufflepuff, and Minerva took the hat and the stool away. Dumbledore rose to his feet and the last of the applause stopped instantly.

"To our newcomers," Dumbledore said, spreading out his arms with a small smile on his lips. "Welcome! To our old hands—welcome back! There is a time for speech-making, but this is not it. Tuck in!"

There was a round of laughter from the students before food began appearing at the table. The new group of teachers only stared, blinking at the food. All the other times they came for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, there would already be food. They had never seen it actually appear in front of them.

Judai was the first to break out of his trance and pile a massive helping of mash potatoes, chicken, and rice onto his plate. The others shrugged at each other and then proceeded to eat.

"This is really good stuff!" Judai said, after swallowing his sixth dish of fried shrimp (he paid a visit to the house elves to teach them the wonders of fried food, and made a request for them to cook it for the rest of the school year). "I could get used to this!"

"Agreed-saurus!" Kenzan join in enthusiastically, shoving white rice into his mouth with a pair of chopsticks. The only people in the whole table who were using chopsticks were Judai and Kenzan; the other three grew up with forks and knives.

"Is that octopus? Dear lord, this is heaven," Aqua added, piling a massive helping of seafood onto her plate. Johan and Jim settled for some nice steak.

"Something tells me that this is only for the opening feast, though," Johan said, cutting up his steak into neat little pieces before taking a bite. He swallowed before he continued. "I mean, look at well these things are prepared!"

Jim took the huge slab of raw meat on one of the plates and placed it on the floor for Karen. The crocodile happily dug into her meal as the Aussie began his feast. Everyone was too busy eating and marveling at the food to care about continuing conversation.

After what seemed like an hour, and after everyone's stomachs were full of delicious food and dessert, Dumbledore stood up again. Talking ceased immediately as all turned to face the Headmaster. He clapped his hands together and gave a tiny nod of thanks.

"Well, now that we are all digesting another magnificent feast, I beg a few moments of your attention for the usual start-of-term notices," said Dumbledore. "First-years ought to know that the Forest in the grounds is out-of-bounds to students—and a few of our older students ought to know by now, too."

"As you may as noticed when you came in, we have had six changes to staffing this year—the largest change in the history of Hogwarts," he continued. "First, I would like to introduce your new Ancient Runes teacher, Professor Jim Cook."

Jim took that as the cue to stand up and tip his hat accordingly, his usual outfit a stark contrast to all the black robes in the room. There was a round of applause before he sat back down.

"Professor Tyranno Kenzan, your new Care of Magical Creatures teacher,"

Kenzan stood as well, crossing his arms and studying the room with a hard gaze. There was a very weak applause—mostly because the students were rather intimidated by the sheer size of his biceps—before he sat down as well.

"Professor Aqua del Sarto, your new History of Magic teacher,"

There was a loud round of applause, because the whole school was relieved that Binns had finally retired. No one had liked him very much. Aqua waved to room but did not stand up.

"Professor Johan Andersen, your new Arithmancy teacher,"

Johan stood and took a bow, giving a bright smile to the students. The applause picked up after his smile, but died down as Dumbledore cleared his throat.

"Professor Judai Yuuki, your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher,"

The others noticed with slight amusement that Haou had taken over for this part; his golden eyes matching the gold trim on his robe. He glared at all of the students coldly as he stood up, giving off the impression of a dark and strict teacher. There was a weak round of applause again due to fear settling in.

"And finally, your new caretaker Dolores Umbridge,"

Perhaps it was because the students were tired of clapping, or perhaps it was because of the horrible shade of pink Professor Umbridge sported on her cardigan, but there was hardly any applause for the new caretaker.

"Not very excited, are they?" Jim commented.

"With that shade of pink? I can understand why," Aqua sniffed.

Dumbledore continued. "Tryouts for the house Quidditch teams will take place on the—"

And suddenly, from the other end of the staff table, Umbridge cleared her throat with a tiny 'hem, hem'. Dumbledore stopped talking and gave a questioning look to the woman in the pink cardigan. Umbridge cleared her throat again, implying that she would like to make a speech. Dumbledore only looked taken aback for a moment, and then he sat down smartly and looked alertly at Professor Umbridge as though he desired nothing better than to listen to her talk.

The new group exchanged looks.

"Thank you, Headmaster," she began, voice unbearably high and shrill. "For those kind words of welcome."

"By the looks of the students, this doesn't happen often either," Johan whispered, blinking owlishly at the new caretaker.

"Yeah well six new changes in staff aren't common either," Jim retorted, tipping his hat down so that he would not be able to see the toad of a woman speaking to the students as if they all were five year olds. Johan gave the Australian a look before going quiet again.

"I don't know much about the magical government, but," Aqua leaned in, frowning. There was just a bad vibe coming from Umbridge that made everyone immediately dislike her (besides the fact that she had interrupted the headmaster). "Doesn't it sound like they're interfering at Hogwarts?"

"I'd rather not get involved-saurus," Kenzan replied, glancing at the pink clad woman again. "Politics isn't something I'd like to dig into-don."

"Besides, we'll be safe if we stay out of her way, right?" Judai added with an encouraging smile.

"I guess. But I don't know, something is just really off," the blue haired woman relented, before turning back to the front. By then, Umbridge had finished her speech and Dumbledore had almost finished giving out the start-of-the-year notices.

There was another clap before the general student populace shuffled out of their seats and made their ways up or down the stairs to their dorm rooms.

"I don't know about you lot, but I'm tired and could use some sleep right now," Jim said, hiding his yawn with his hand. As if on cue, Karen decided to let out a large huff as well. "And Karen wants some R&R, so I think it's time to sleep."

"Good night," they all said to each other before the males headed off in one direction and Aqua headed off in the other.

_/./Get some sleep, Judai. I'll take the first class tomorrow././_

_/Woah, thanks! I could use it./_


	6. The Boy Who Cried Wolf

_**Summary:**__ Dark forces are at work, but then again, they have always been at work. Lord Voldemort seeks to control the ancient "magic" wielded by the Herald of Gentle Darkness, and it just so happens that the Herald is Harry's new DADA professor. But what is a King without his court? There's more than just one new professor, and more than just one power at large.  
__**Rating:**__ T (may be bumped up in later chapters)  
__**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own YuGiOh or Harry Potter. Rights to © Kazuki Takashi and J.K. Rowling  
__**Author's Note:**__ Okay, so since I've got some feedback, this is how duels are going to go:_

_I will write down duels, but not fully. As in, I will probably write the first three or so turns, and then either timeskip or interrupt it with an interlude to another character's whereabouts or happenings on Lord Voldemort. I'll cut in just in time for either a really long monologue by one of the characters about what's going on or the ending part of the duel._

_Then, maybe in the next chapter or just a few paragraphs after the duel I'll try to have characters flashback to a certain part of the duel to give more insight. Because this is YuGiOh, and duels needs to happen. The fate of the world depends on Children's Card Games, you know._

_That, and because, at the time I'm writing this, I'm multi-tasking by dueling someone else._

_Also, if you haven't noticed, I have changed my pen name from **NiChu Squad Aurelia** to **Lady Aurelia**.  
_

* * *

**You Can't Turn Back  
**_**-(The Boy Who Cried Wolf)-**_

* * *

Harry idly tapped the tip of his quill against his piece of parchment.

Today was the beginning of classes, and of course his first was History of Magic. Usually, he would already be trying to doze off before the bell rang, but with the promise of new professors, he wanted to stay awake. Ron, however, had fit back into the normal routine easily and was already drooling on his piece of parchment. His quill sat neglected next to his hand. Harry shook his head and chanced a glance at Hermione.

The Ravenfindor, as Harry amusingly made up the name as a mishmash of Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, was staring attentively at the board, which at the moment said 'Sit wherever you like'. The teacher still had not come in yet, and Hermione was sneaking a few glances at the door to the classroom.

As the bell tolled for classes to start, the door burst open. Immediately, every student sat ramrod straight, a habit produced from a certain Potion's professor just-in-time arrivals. Ron, though, kept to his slumber. The new professor made her way to the front of the class, and Harry couldn't help but notice that her hair seemed darker than when he first saw her. Perhaps it was a trick of the light—that would explain those golden eyes.

"**Right, class**," she turned around, golden orbs scanning the vicinity. Her voice echoed and seemed to constrict around the room. Her eyes caught sight of Ron, and Harry could feel an involuntary shiver run up his spine. He tried to nudge his friend awake with no results. "**First, I will say I will not tolerate sleeping in my class.**"

In a flash, and a flick of her wand, Ron's chair tipped over, sending the red-haired boy sprawling out of his seat and onto the floor. Harry barely had time to blink before the new professor was upon them.

"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to," she said, her hair and eyes back to their normal colour. It must have been a trick of the light then, Harry mused. She bustled over to Ron and helped him up, and moved his chair back to its upright position. The Weasley sat there dazed for a moment and Harry couldn't blame him. "Please don't sleep in my class, Mister Weasley. That's ten points from Gryffindor."

With that, she turned around and made her way back to the front of the classroom. A few Ravenclaws who shared the class with them snickered. Harry could see Ron's ears go red in embarrassment, and Hermione's glare from across the room for losing points so early in the day.

"You may call me Professor Aqua," she said, writing her name down on the blackboard in fancy cursive writing. Harry squinted to make out the individual letters. "Yes, Miss…?"

"Granger," Hermione responded, her hand previously up in the air. "I would like to ask why you ask up to address you by your first name."

"Professor del Sarto doesn't have a ring to it," the professor replied, and Hermione, seemingly satisfied with her reply, nodded once. "Welcome to the first day of History of Magic. We'll be starting with our first unit: Ancient Magic."

"Take out your Ancient Civilizations textbook," the teacher instructed and Harry scrambled into his rucksack to take out the required book. "Flip to the first chapter and begin reading. You have twenty minutes. Begin."

There was a period of pages flipping this way and that, before everything quieted down and everyone's eyes were on the pages. Professor Aqua sat down at the seat behind her teacher's desk and began to flip through something Harry vaguely made out as a magazine. However, a nudge from his best friend made him forget about the teacher's reading material and he started on his own.

* * *

"_My lord, I come bearing regrettable news," the Death Eater in front of him said, kneeling and pushing his forehead against the ground._

"_Rise and speak," Lord Voldemort said, his voice snakelike as he hissed out his words. However, at this time they held no real malice for the servant in front of him. That would change._

"_Haou has been reincarnated," the follower spoke quickly, afraid that at a moment's notice he would on the floor dead._

"_**What?**__"_

"_I-It is of no matter, my lord!" he squeaked, and the Dark Lord hissed at him to continue. "We can si-simply preform a ritual to release h-his spirit!"_

"_What are you waiting for? Perform it!"_

"_W-We need the host body. W-We don't know who that i-is,"_

"_Useless!" he roared, and the Death Eater quickly stepped back a few paces in fear. "And what of the Orichalcos? What information do you have of that?"_

"_W-We have found the stone, m-my lord!" he seemed to rejoice. Perhaps Voldemort would not kill him then. "I-It is right here—"_

_With a simple flick of his wand and an 'Avada Kedabra', the Death Eater fell to the floor dead. Voldemort marched over and took the glittering green gem from his dead hands. The gem seemed to shine even brighter as it landed in the Dark Lord's hands. Voldemort smiled with a twisted curl of his lips and retreated to his 'throne' to further examine the object._

* * *

"Mister Potter, are you there?"

The questioning voice of the new professor caused Harry's head to snap up. His scar burned, and he only saw brief glimpses and flashes of what was going on. He silently hissed at the pain and rubbed his forehead, prompting Ron to blink and put two and two together. Harry took a deep breath and nodded slowly.

"I'm sorry, Professor," he started, giving a knowing look to Hermione. Her face flashed to one of worry and he shook his head slightly as if to say he was fine and that she didn't need to worry. "I just zoned out."

"Well, welcome back to the real world," she said, not bothering with asking why. "Now, please stand and tell us how the Incas used magic in their daily lives."

As Harry barely recited what he had read from the first chapter from memory, his mind couldn't help but drift off to what he had just witnessed. This was the first flash from Voldemort that he had had in a long time. Along with the whole Dark World thing that Dumbledore had informed him about (or, as much as he knew since no one seems to have heard the term before), Harry knew he was going to be in for another big adventure.

What was this Orichalcos anyway?

* * *

History of Magic ended without incident, and the professor had already got to work assigning them a foot and a half essay on how the Mayans and Incans used magic to build their incredible structures, along with the reading of chapters two and three on the Ancient Egyptians. Fred and George weren't lying about OWL year being more of a challenge than the last few.

Potions passed like it always did. Snape picked on him, the Slytherins laughed, and the cold teacher had made his potion vanish, ending in another bad grade for him. They were then assigned a foot long essay on the properties moonstone. Divination was no different, with the usual drawl about death, and then a month-long dream diary.

Harry only hoped Defense Against the Dark Arts was different.

* * *

The new professor was already at his desk when they walked in. On the blackboard were the words 'Professor Yuuki' in another set of fancy writing. Beneath Professor Yuuki's name were the words 'Do not sit, and don't touch anything' written in standard print. Yet Harry couldn't help but notice the professor's handwriting gave off a regal feeling, as it was neat and looped, and the first thought was that he must have been raised as such.

What an interesting thought, he mused. The professor might be a pureblood.

Once the bell tolled for classes to start, Professor Yuuki's eyes snapped up from his book as he shut it and placed it on his desk. Harry couldn't help but notice those yellow eyes again—the same ones he saw when Dumbledore first introduced them. He shivered again and shifted the weight of his foot from one to another.

He stood up and flicked his wand, his black and gold robes swaying with him, and the desks pushed themselves against the wall of the classroom. The student body took that as a cue to venture further into the room and he nodded accordingly.

"**Professor Yuuki, as you all know**," he said, his voice monotone and layered as Harry noticed in the first professor as well before it suddenly stopped. "**Drop your rucksacks at the door. You won't need anything. I want everyone in the center, and spread out. If I hear a peep—**_**detention**_**.**"

There was some shuffling as they shrugged off their bags and then took their places in the center. The Slytherins hoarded over to one side, and the Gryffindors over to another. Professor Yuuki noticed this with slight amusement, judging from the raise of his eyebrows, but made no move to unite them.

"**I hope you all were smart enough to notice the stacks of cards situated around the room**," he began, walking down the rift created between the two opposing houses. His steps were clear, precise, and he held his head high as if everyone around him was lower.

Professor Yuuki was a pureblood after all.

"**We will be doing an exercise, and I want everyone to close their eyes and focus**," he instructed and everyone followed. "**There are thirty two stacks of cards around the room, one for each student. You will not be choosing the cards, **_**they**_** will be choosing **_**you**_**.**"

"**Don't open your eyes until I tell you to**," he continued, and Harry heard his boots tap against the tiled flooring of the classroom. "**If you do, I will deduct points and you will get detention**."

Suddenly, Harry felt wind across his face, and he resisted the urge to open his eyes to see what was going on. A few of his classmates fell over in surprise, but all he heard was a snort from the teacher and a deduction of points of Gryffindor—Neville had fallen over from the sudden wind.

"**Continuing on,**" he dismissed and Harry peeked just a bit. He couldn't see anything with the sudden darkness as well, though. "**I want you all to concentrate. When you hear something, go towards it. Whether it is a roar, a squeak, or a phrase, **_**move**_**.**"

For a minute there was silence, before Harry heard one of the students move from their spot towards another destination in the room. Pretty soon, a lot more students began blindly following their imaginary voices around. Harry squeezed his eyes shut and tried concentrating harder. Finally, he heard a 'Come hither' and began to move towards it.

When the last of the students stopped moving, Professor Yuuki instructed them to put their hands on top of the stack of cards in front of them. "**Try channeling your magic through it, and the first response you hear, drag it out,**" he said. "**Literally take a hold of the response and drag it out.**"

Harry put his hand on top of the cards, and did as instructed. There was a soft warm feeling under his hand as he tried focusing his magic on his hand. Immediately, he grabbed it and pulled it out. He could hear the fabrics of the other students' robes rustling as they did the same.

"**Open your eyes**,"

There were several squeals, squeaks, and a shriek of terror before Harry decided to hop on the bandwagon and opened his green orbs. He was greeted with a large man covered in shiny steel armor. He held a curved blade in one hand and a large steel shield in another. His face was obscured by the steel helmet he wore, which had a large black spike producing from the right side.

"Blade Knight," Harry said without thinking, and the knight nodded in acknowledgement. He bowed his head at Harry, the top of his body tilting forward slightly.

"Good day, master," he responded, and Harry blinked. Did he just call him 'master'?

"**The creatures you see before you are your Deck Masters**," Professor Yuuki continued, and Harry snapped to attention. He took a quick glance around the room to see what everyone else got.

Hermione was standing next to a man with blond hair and pure white skin. He wore a long, white trench coat accompanied by a white belt and hat along with blue jeans. He wielded a white wand with a sapphire embedded at the tip and a one-sided hilt coming out of it. It seemed to have doubled as a small dagger. His trench coat had multiple straight lines over it, arranged like the lines seen in computer chips and various other muggle technologies.

Ron cowered next to a giant dark brown butterfly which was double the size of him. Its body looked like the combination of a dark brown bee and the one of a normal butterfly. Its wings were _in flames_. The more it tried to reassure Ron (by that it tried to nuzzle him), the more his face paled and he squeaked.

And Draco, Harry momentarily frowned, stood next to a large dark red dragon. It had a white underbelly and large red wings. The end of its tail was a large spike ball. The head of the dragon was sharp and blade-like as it spiked in different directions. Its yellow eyes focused on Harry for a moment, and he thought he heard the knight move beside him, lifting his blade.

"**Settle down**," the professor said, and his knight immediately put his blade down. The dragon next to Draco bowed its head as if in apology. "**I will not have your master's quarrels affect your attitude toward someone else**. **Not yet, anyway**. **Understood?**"

"Yes, your Highness," his knight said, saluting Professor Yuuki at the center of the room. The red dragon next to Draco nodded its head once, puffing out a cloud of smoke. Harry knitted his eyebrows together—'Your Highness'? Was Professor Yuuki royalty?

"**Good**," Professor Yuuki took his golden eyes away from the two and addressed the class. "**The deck you are standing next to will be yours to keep. Every one of these cards are alive, and I expect you to treat it as such.**"

He took out his wand and immediately the desks moved back to the center of the room. "**Sit down and decks out**," he said and Harry turned around to grab the stack of cards behind him. Everyone else did the same, grabbed their bags at the back of the room, and took their seats. The spirits disappeared and returned to their decks. "**You may be wondering why I chose to introduce you to them. But they hold more power than you think**."

A Gryffindor in the back raised his hand and Harry recognized him as Dean Thomas. "**What is it, Mister Thomas?**" the teacher snapped.

"Aren't these monsters from the game Duel Monsters?" he asked. Murmurs of agreement rose up among the muggleborns of the class. Harry was sure he heard of the name somewhere, but couldn't quite place it.

"**It's more than just a game**," Professor Yuuki said, turning around to write something on the board. "**If I heard a peep out of line from any of you during my lesson, I will dock twenty points and you will spend detention with me for the next week.**"

Dean gave him a quizzical look, but Professor Yuuki pointedly ignored him. The professor put the chalk down to reveal more writing in cursive letters. The blackboard now read 'An Introduction for Beginners'. He turned around, golden eyes scanning the class, before pulling his own stack of cards from his robe.

"**We will now begin our first lesson on the basics of Duel Monsters**,"

* * *

**Extended Author's Note:**

Back in business and ready to move the plot forward! Sorry if I seem to be moving a bit slow, I want to make sure I include every important detail. Aqua's History of Magic lesson wasn't important though, so that was, uh, blatant favoritism for her.

_Shhhhh._

Hermione's monster is Cybernetic Magician, Draco's is Genesis Dragon, Ron's is Blazewing Butterfly, and Harry's is, as he said, Blade Knight. With that, I hope everyone can predict which type of decks they will use. If not, I will break it down. Hermione will use a Spellcaster deck, Draco a Dragon deck, Ron an Insect deck (just for the irony), and Harry a Warrior deck.

I'll try to move the plot along faster next chapter. Maybe I can sneak in some Death Eater movements and such.

Please read and review! I don't start writing until I get three reviews, and I don't publish the chapter until I get a fourth one.


	7. Snow White

_**Summary:**__ Dark forces are at work, but then again, they have always been at work. Lord Voldemort seeks to control the ancient "magic" wielded by the Herald of Gentle Darkness, and it just so happens that the Herald is Harry's new DADA professor. But what is a King without his court? There's more than just one new professor, and more than just one power at large.  
__**Rating:**__ T  
__**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own YuGiOh or Harry Potter. Rights to © Kazuki Takashi and J.K. Rowling  
__**Author's Note:**__ laughs. What even is frequent updating. I don't believe that exists in my dictionary. cries_

* * *

**You Can't Turn Back  
**_**-(Snow White)-**_

* * *

The Hogsmeade trip was something that Harry constantly looked forward to during his school year. While Hogwarts was an amazing school and an even more amazing institution, he did enjoy the bit of freedom he was given when on a trip to the nearby wizarding village. The first few weeks of the new school year passed by without so much as a bad dream or anything unusual in its wake (unless one counted the presence of Dolores Umbridge). The new teachers seemed to know what they were doing and classes were going smoothly. Of course, Harry did miss the half-giant Hagrid, his original Care of Magical Creatures professor, but Professor Kenzan was an extremely laid back and 'cool' guy.

"I say we stop by Honeydukes first," his best friend Ron said as they walked down the hill.

"Is it always food with you?" Hermione asked in exasperation. Nonetheless, she seemed to relent for once and was content to follow. "But I suppose I could use something sweet. That Umbridge woman has not been making things easy for us."

"I don't think anyone likes her at all," Harry commented as they passed Zonko's Joke Shop. A crash resounded within along with a scream, but they paid no attention as such things were normal of that shop. "But she hasn't done much, besides be rude and try to boss everyone around."

"I suppose she's not much of a threat," their bushy-haired companion replied. "It still doesn't help that she wears that blindingly pink cardigan."

Harry shrugged and stopped to open the door as they finally arrived at the candy store. Hermione thanked him as she walked in, but Ron made a beeline for the chocolates. The two still near the entrance gave a knowing look to each other before they went their separate ways to find their favourite candy item.

As they were lining up to check out at the register, Professor Kenzan and Yuuki walked in, happily chatting about—dueling monsters? Harry blinked, but decided not to comment. Over the past few weeks, the erratic changes in behavior of Professor Yuuki baffled the student populace. To the fourth years and below, he was the ideal teacher: humorous, lenient, cheerful, and always willing to lend a hand. To fifth years and above, he was cold and distant, and held a large dislike for anyone who interrupted his lectures (Hermione was usually at the end of his golden glare, as she was always curious and willing to ask questions).

"Good morning, Professors," Harry greeted as it was polite. He thought it was a trick of the light, but Professor Yuuki's eyes seemed brown for a second. He had seen them enough times to know that they were gold—_fiendish_ gold.

"Mister Potter, Mister Weasley, Miss Granger," he acknowledged with a nod, but did not say much else. The conversation died there, as even Professor Kenzan looked a bit uncomfortable in the DADA instructor's presence. It was weird, since a moment ago it seemed as if the two were close friends.

"I'm going to look at the chocolates in the back-saurus," Professor Kenzan said awkwardly as he dismissed himself to look over the selection of sweets.

Professor Yuuki looked disgusted at the thought of sweets, and turned to walk out of the shop. The moment the door's bell jingled to single that he was outside, the heavy tension in the room seemed to lift and everyone let a breath that they did not know they were holding out.

"Sorry about him-don," Professor Kenzan tried to reassure them. "He's like that sometimes."

"I always get the feeling he hates us," Ron weakly mumbled. Their Care of Magical Creatures teacher smiled slightly.

"He doesn't hate you… it's just that Ha—" Professor Kenzan caught himself before he said something he should not. "It's just that he is quite anti-social."

"But to the fourth years and below he's like, the best teacher ever!" Ron protested. "Ginny's always talking about how dreamy he is and how fun her classes are."

Their large, muscled instructor shrugged and offered to pay for their purchases. "As an apology for that guy-saurus," he explained. "He's just like that."

And then there was an explosion outside.

* * *

"Ha-haaa-achoo!" the new History of Magic professor sneezed. She rubbed her nose with the sleeve of her robe while her companion looked on in slight disgust.

"Do you want a tissue? You don't want snot on your robes," the black haired Ancient Runes professor offered. Aqua nodded eagerly, and Jim reached into his pockets to pull out the fragile, white paper. He handed it over to her. "Here."

She took it and blew her nose, and used the remaining space to wipe the snot off of her robes. "Thanks, and sorry about that," she banished the tissue somewhere with her wand. "It's an old habit."

"Can't have you transmitting a virus through the school, now can I?" Jim asked jokingly. She huffed and pinched her nose in an attempt to stop her sneezes.

"It's not my fault that English weather is so freezing. They don't have this kind of weather in the middle of an island in the Pacific Ocean," she griped in a nasally voice. Aqua took a deep breath and released her nose from her hold. Jim only seemed amused.

"You should wear more, then," he commented. "A scarf and a measly robe will only do so much."

"Well that's why we're going to Hogsmeade, aren't we?" she huffed. "So that I can get more winter-oriented clothes."

"Why 'we'? Why couldn't I just have stayed at the castle?"

"Because _you're_ going to carry my things."

"Of course," he rolled his eyes.

The short walk after that was made in relative silence, except for the occasional sneeze from the female professor. They entered Gladrags Wizardwear (Aqua paused to fawn over the pink dress on display, until Jim told her that she looked horrible in pink, after which she stuck her nose in the air haughtily and ignored him) and the blue haired instructor asked for warmer clothing than what she had on now. A bit of measuring and needles later, and Aqua was now much warmer than she was before.

Jim, it seemed, did not have to carry any bags, as half-way through the ordeal Aqua remembered that she could just _levitate_ them.

"Real smooth," he commented with a small grin.

"Oh shut it," she sulked.

They exited the store and headed to The Three Broomsticks for a drink, but suddenly the History of Magic professor grabbed Jim's wrist and pulled him down as a jet of green light sailed over them.

"What the heck was that?" she hissed, her eyes gold and her hair a darker shade.

Jim lifted his hat a little so that he could see a little better—just in time for the spell to hit a nearby plank and snap it cleanly in half. He winced: if that had hit them…

"The Killing Curse," he breathed.

"Well if it isn't Hogwart's newest mudbloods," a mocking voice alerted them to someone else's presence.

"What the actual fuck-?" Aurelia said as two figures seemed to just pop out of thin air. They were wearing skull masks and their black robes covered their whole frame. Neither Aurelia nor Jim could recognize any of them (if they even knew any of them).

As it was a bit late in the evening, most of the Hogwarts students had already gone back to their common rooms. The few who were still around were either at Honeydukes or The Three Broomsticks. The loud crack of apparition did not attract spectators, as apparition was a normal occurrence, but everyone inside the circle knew that something—_someone_—was going to go down and cause a huge ruckus.

Instinctively, Jim reached for Karen, only to realize he left the crocodile back at the castle because Karen was not made for cold weather. When his crocodile was not an option, his hand settled on his deck, which was strapped to his belt. The masked and robed person on the right laughed. Jim flinched involuntarily—the laugh was shrill and mad.

"I will have great fun testing out my new powers on you mudbloods," he grinned. Immediately, he pulled out a duel disk, and both Aurelia and Jim did a double-take. Electronics did not work in Hogwarts, and while they brought theirs anyway just in case, they could not configure the device to run on anything other than electricity. Because of that, they did not carry them around as much as they used to. They were, for the lack of a better word, duel disk-less.

The one on the left tossed them two replacements.

"Strap them on so this can be done faster. They run on magic," the one on the left said. He seemed much calmer than his partner, but both professors could feel the power radiating off of him like UV rays from the sun. It was always the quiet ones, indeed.

With a frown, Aurelia and Jim strapped on the ones they were given. The familiar weight of the machine brought a bit of comfort, but in the end they knew it would only last so long. Their hands worked instinctively, putting in their deck and turning on the duel disk without conscious thought. They had done it too many times to count.

"Hey! Before we start this, who the hell are you people?" Aurelia shouted in irritation. A scowl marred her face at the people who dared to try and attack _her_ (and Jim as well, but mostly her). "I'd like to know the people I'll be beating to a pulp!"

"Ha! Pride comes before a fall," the right one sneered.

"Look who's talking!" she snapped.

"Aurelia, reign in your temper," Jim frowned.

"Ugh," she scowled before taking a deep breath and letting the tension ease from her shoulders. "Since you challenged us, what rules are we using?"

"Standard tournament tag team rules. We each get separate fields but the same total life points," the one on the left said. He calmly activated his duel disk. "I am called Henry. My partner is named Klaus."

"What business do you have with us?" Jim asked.

"None, except to test out our new powers on weaklings," Henry replied. Aurelia bristled and was about to make a retort but Jim shot a glare at her. She stood down, but sneered. "I do not ask for forgiveness from mudbloods. It is a pointless waste of time. We need to finish this quickly."

"_DUEL_!"

* * *

Aurelia & Jim: 8000 LP  
Henry & Klaus: 8000 LP

"Ladies first!" she drew a card from her deck. Aurelia quickly glanced at Jim, then back to her own deck. Their decks were not totally incompatible, but the two would need to work extremely hard to win as a team. She frowned; this was why she liked one-on-one duels. There was no one else to worry about (but should she be worried about Jim anyway? He could handle himself).

"I first use the effect of _Gishki Vision_ from my hand. By discarding this card to the Graveyard, I can add one '_Gishki_' Ritual Monster to my hand from my deck," Aurelia took her deck out of its slot and fanned out the cards. "I'll take _Evigishki Soul Ogre_."

"I then play the continuous spell card _Water Hazard_!" she easily slid the card into its correct slot and it appeared on the field. "This card lets me special summon a level four or lower WATER attribute monster from my hand whenever I don't have monsters on the field. And as of right now I don't, so I special summon _Gishki Avance_ in attack position!"

A rogue-like girl with purple hair appeared on the field, and threw her black cape over her shoulder. Her green eyes scanned the field with boredom, as if she had no interest in her opponents or the duel in general. A bright red sash that was tied to her waist stood out from the rest of her brown and white clothing, and she had a sword attached to her belt.

Gishki Avance: **1500 ATK** / 800 DEF

"I use her special effect and place one '_Gishki_' monster at the top of my deck," Aurelia continued as a card slid out of her deck holder and she took it to place it on top. "I then normal summon _Gishki Shadow_ in attack position!"

Compared to his human colleague, _Gishki Shadow_ was an oversized blue fish with an enlarged dorsal fin on top of his head and four red eyes. He was dressed in a black robe with a dark gold trim and a high collar and held a staff of the same colour. A teardrop shaped jade dangled from the tip of his staff.

Gishki Shadow: **1200 ATK** / 1000 DEF

"Whoop de-fucking-doo," Klaus clapped boredly. "You can summon two weak monsters and draw cards. Maybe next you will be able to—" he gasped dramatically. "_End your turn_."

"Fu—" Aurelia started.

"Aurelia!" Jim said and gestured with his head towards the pathway. Children were still around. She was about to open her mouth to protest since there was hardly _anyone_ around, but decided not to at the last minute (and it totally did not have anything to do with the look Jim gave her).

"As I was saying—" she growled. "I use the Ritual spell card _Gishki Aquamirror_. I hope you know how Ritual spells work, because I'm not explaining it. At this time, I also activate the effect of _Gishki Shadow_ on my field. If I use him to Ritual summon a WATER monster, he can count as the whole tribute."

_Gishki Shadow_ turned into a small ball of white light and disappeared into the large, gold mirror that appeared on the field. A few seconds later, the mirror showed the card _Evigishki Soul Ogre_ in its reflection, before a webbed, black, clawed hand reached out and pulled itself onto the field. _Evigishki Soul Ogre_ was a cross between a fish and a dinosaur, with red eyes, a huge jaw, and a tail that split into two. It lived up to its ogre name, being immensely gigantic.

Evigishki Soul Ogre: **2800 ATK** / 2800 DEF

"I place one card face down and end my turn," she said, gazing in appreciation of one of her best monsters already out on the field.

"Finally!" Klaus shouted. He eagerly drew from his deck and stopped to examine his cards. "Guess what, you're not the only person who can ritual summon! I use the Ritual spell card _Doriado's Blessing_! I send my _Djinn Presider of Rituals_ to the Graveyard as tribute to special summon _Elemental_ _Mistress Doriado_!"

A short and chubby green goblin-like creature appeared on the field wearing a helmet and skirt. He snickered before turning into a white ball that sunk into the Doriado's Blessing spell card on the field. The spell card glowed softly before a blonde haired woman appeared on the field. She wore a light blue robe with a large shawl-like covering over her shoulders and a large, red hat that emphasized her hair. She knelt down and clasped her hands in front of her as if in prayer.

Elemental Mistress Doriado: 1200 ATK / **1400 DEF**

"That's hardly a threat," Aurelia chided with a bored look. "And you want to _beat_ me?"

"Pride before a fall," Klaus's grin never left his face. He glanced at his cards again. "I summon _Element Valkyrie_, who gains 500 ATK points because _Elemental Mistress Doriado_ is also treated as a WATER, WIND, FIRE and EARTH attribute monster. _Element Valkyrie_ can't switch control, either."

A purple-haired woman in skimpy red and blue armor appeared on the field. She twirled her staff above her head, and then slammed it down on the ground. Flames shot out from the ends of the staff, and the snow beneath her completely melted.

Element Valkyrie: 1500 - **2000 ATK** / 1200 DEF

Aurelia shared a look with Jim. These weren't holograms—these were real monsters. _Element Valkyrie_ _melted the snow_ beneath her. Klaus laughed at their expressions.

"That's right, these monsters are as real as the snow below your shoes!" he clapped enthusiastically. "Which means when you get hit, you'll certainly _feel_ it!"

"Nice talk, tough guy, but I'm getting bored already," Aurelia shouted back.

"I place three cards face down and end my turn," he said casually as three large, brown cards appeared on the field.

"Right, my turn," Jim said and drew a card from his deck. "I use the spell card _Hand Destruction_! Each o' us sends two cards to the Graveyard and then draws two."

Jim and Henry each discarded the appropriate amount of cards and then drew. Aurelia and Klaus, who had no cards in their hands, simply skipped to the draw step. Each duelist took a minute to examine their new cards and how they could be used.

"I then summon _Flint Cragger_ in attack mode!"

A large, fossilized dinosaur reared up from the ground. Its skeleton structure defied the laws of physics as it did not fall apart or break since it was not being upheld by flesh and muscle. _Flint Cragger_ roared and whipped his skeletal tale around.

Flint Cragger: **800 ATK** / 1300 DEF

"But he won't be staying for long. I activate his special effect to send him to the Graveyard and inflict 500 points of damage to you two!" Jim removed the monster from his duel disk and slid it into the Graveyard slot. The skeletal dinosaur was sucked back into the earth, but moments later a tail made of bone reappeared on the other side of the field and smacked both Henry and Klaus before disappearing. They flew back a few feet.

Henry & Klaus: 7500 LP

"I now special summon _Gigantes_ from my hand by removing _Flint Cragger_ in my Graveyard from play!"

A red skinned ogre appeared on the field, wearing old steel armor and using the trunk of a tree as a weapon. _Gigantes_ howled in excitement and pounded his chest ferociously.

Gigantes: **1900 ATK** / 1300 DEF

"Not so fast!" Henry shouted from all the way across the field. He quickly slid a card into the slot. "I activate the quick-play spell card _Demise of the Land_!"

A green card appeared on the field, with a brown wasteland as its graphic.

"When my opponent special summons a monster, I can pick one field spell card from my hand and activate it!" he grinned, a green circle with a star in the middle suddenly appearing on his forehead. His eyes turned crimson, and the calm Henry from earlier seemed to have vanished for a much more crazed one. Klaus, too, had the green symbol on his forehead and the red eyes. "I choose _The Seal of Orichalcos_!"

"The Seal of _what_—" Jim asked in shock.

From beneath the snow rose an ever enlarging circle of green—the same symbol that was branded on Klaus's and Henry's foreheads. It expanded until it enveloped all the duelists and their monsters, locking them within its perimeter. All of the monsters on Henry's and Klaus's side of the field gained the symbol on their foreheads and crimson eyes.

"I should probably explain what it does," Henry remarked casually with a mad glint in his eye. "All monsters on our side of the field gain 500 ATK points. Our spell and trap zone can be used as extra monster zones, and you can't attack those monsters until you've… say, cleared the front line."

Element Valkyrie: 2000 - **2500 ATK** / 1200 DEF  
Elemental Mistress Doriado: 1200 - 1700 ATK / **1400 DEF**

"Last thing," Klaus interrupted before Jim or Aurelia could comment. "_The Seal of Orichalcos_ cannot be destroyed or negated." And he dissolved into mad laughter.

"Orichalcos? Like Orichalcum?" Jim asked, putting a hand up to the bandages around his eye. His eye had shattered long ago after the events of Dark World, but that hollow socket seemed to pulse in power when the field spell was played. Not to mention…

He stuck his hand into his pocket and felt the cloth bag hidden inside. The objects within the bag were sharp and jagged, and could probably cut his hand if he pressed too hard. They were the remains of the Eye of Orichalcum—Ryo was the one who got the idea to scoop them up and store them. He later passed the bag to Shou, who, after a year, finally passed the bag back to Jim.

Even as tiny, broken fragments, he could feel the power within.

"Ex-act-ly!" Klaus replied with a laugh. "The only way out of this is if you have a chunk of that stone, but you two don't, so start counting your blessings! You'll need it."

The Australian frowned and clutched the bag in his jean pocket one more time, but let it go afterwards. He did not need to use it (and he did not know _how_ it could be used anyway). He could save it for later, since it was obvious the two duelists across from him were only minions.

"_The Seal of Orichalcos_ is illegal!" Aurelia said with a look of disbelief. "Anyone caught using it can be thrown in jail and fined."

"A crime isn't committed until we've been caught," Klaus grinned.

"I'll place one card facedown and end my turn," Jim finally said as a large, brown card appeared on the field behind _Gigantes_.

"My turn, draw," Henry said as soon as Jim ended his turn. "I summon _Madolche Mewfeuille_ in defense mode in my spell and trap zone!"

A cute, pink kitten wearing a chevalier hat decorated like a donut appeared on the field. He wore a purple scarf with a bell attached to it, and sat upon a large slice of bread covered with frosting and sliced fruit. The kitten sat in the back, where spell and traps were supposed to be. _Madolche Mewfeuille_ meowed and rubbed his eyes in tiredness.

Madolche Mewfeuille: 500- 1000 ATK / **300 DEF**

_(I-It's so adorable. We can't destroy that monster, Aurelia-)_

_((Oh come off it, light. You know we have to in order to win.))_

_(But-)_

Aurelia slammed the mind link shut. Aqua wailed from the other side.

"I activate _Madolche Mewfeuille_'s special effect. I can special summon another 'Madolche' monster, and I choose _Madolche Butlerusk_ in attack position in my monster zone," Henry slammed another card onto the field.

A brown-haired man appeared on the field in a butler's outfit. He had a towel draped over his left arm and a monocle over his right eye. Despite his formal wear, he looked fairly young, probably in his late teens. _Madolche Butlerusk_ walked over to _Madolche Mewfeuille_ and offered a steaming cup of tea. The pink kitten mewed and accepted it. Despite the green circles upon their heads, the two monsters seemed extremely relaxed.

(Somewhere in Aurelia's mind, Aqua squealed and fell over in delight.)

Madolche Butlerusk: 1500 - **2000 ATK** / 800 DEF

"I place one card face down and activate the continuous spell card _Madolche Ticket_. When a '_Madolche_' card is returned from either my field of my Graveyard to my hand or deck, I can add one '_Madolche_' monster from my deck to my hand," he explained. A large scroll appeared on the field, and _Madolche Butlerusk_ signed it. _Madolche Mewfeuille_ stamped it with its paw.

"I end my turn by equipping _Madolche Butlerusk_ with _Mage Power_. Since I control three spell and trap cards, it gains 1500 ATK and DEF," Henry smirked as he laid his last card on the field.

Madolche Butlerusk: 2000 - **3500 ATK** / 800 - 2300 DEF

"Your _Madolche Butlerusk_ can only stay on the field for so long!" Aurelia taunted as she drew another card. "At this time, I activate _Pot of Greed_! I don't think I need to explain what it does."

A green pot with a distorted smile appeared on the field. Aurelia pulled two cards out of her deck and it shattered into pieces. "I activate my facedown trap card, _Aquamirror Meditation_!" a dark pink card slowly revealed itself on the field. A girl wearing a blue witch's hat with a gold trim appeared on the field. Her robes were the same colour of her hat, and she held a mirror in her hand. "By revealing _Gishki Photomirror_ in my hand, I get to return _Gishki Vision_ and _Gishki Shadow_ to my hand."

The mirror in the girl's hands revealed _Gishki Photomirror_, as promised, and two cards flew out from the Graveyard and back to Aurelia's hand.

"I'll activate _Evigishki Soul Ogre_'s special effect! I discard one '_Gishki_' monster—namely, _Gishki Vision_—to shuffle one card from the field to your deck. I'll choose your _Madolche Butlerusk_!" the large, aquatic monster crossed his arms, his legs spread at shoulder width: a soldier's stance. His red eyes glowed and he leveled his glare at the young butler. The seal upon the butler's forehead broke, and the brown-haired man scrambled back into Henry's deck in fear.

"At this time, _Madolche Ticket_ activates, and I can add one '_Madolche_' monster from my deck to my hand," a card slid out from Henry's deck and he took it. "I add _Madolche Hootcake_ to my hand."

Before _Madolche Butlerusk_ made it into the deck, he skidded to a stop near the contract he had signed earlier. Quickly, he erased his own name and replaced it with _Madolche Hootcake_ before scrambling back into Henry's deck.

"I suppose I'll draw first blood," Aurelia said. Jim raised an eyebrow as if to say '_I_ did that', but she ignored him. "_Evigishki Soul Ogre_, attack Klaus's _Element Valkyrie_!"

The aquatic ogre roared, before charging headfirst at the female fairy. _Element Valkyrie_ held her staff in front of her and braced for the oncoming attack, but the sweat on her brow betrayed her determination. With a final roar, _Evigishki Soul Ogre_ slammed headfirst into the woman and sent her flying to the outskirts of the circle. _Element Valkyrie_ screamed in pain before disappearing in a huge explosion.

* * *

At the first sound of danger, Judai forced his way back into control and headed straight in the direction of where he heard the explosion. Some would call him reckless, but he had more than enough experience in those situations to always make sure that everything was okay. It could have been a spell that backfired, but Judai felt the responsibility as a teacher to care for his students. If it _wasn't_ a spell, then…

He quickly arrived on the scene without breaking a sweat. A large, green circle prevented him from going further, but through the barrier he could see two unknown duelists (some part of him felt elation at the fact that the duel disks could work now, but he quickly squashed it). On the other side were Aurelia and Jim. He sucked in breath.

"Jim! Aurelia!" he shouted to make his presence known. Four sets of eyes fixed on him: green, blue, gold, and hazel.

"Judai! Don't get any closer!" Jim warned immediately. "The seal cannot be broken."

"_The Seal of Orichalcos_?" he asked as a chill ran through his spine. "Isn't this card illegal? Banned? Pegasus said that if anyone was caught using it they could be thrown in jail for a life sentence."

"Life sentence?!" Aurelia's tone of disbelief pierced the air. "What makes this card so bad that someone could get thrown in jail for playing it?"

"Simple," Henry said as he crossed his arms. The seal on his forehead seemed to glow in recognition. "The loser of any duel with _The Seal of Orichalcos_ will lose their soul."

Judai closed his eyes and counted to ten. He then took a deep breath. Inside the barrier, Aurelia and Jim both did the same. A feeling of dread overcame all of them.

"End this duel, now!" Judai shouted to Klaus and Henry.

Klaus scoffed. "Even if we wanted to, we can't. But hey, on the bright side, you have a front row seat to watching your friend's soul's being sucked away by the Orichalcos!"

For a moment, Judai's brown eyes reverted to gold, and then to Yubel's signature blue and orange. He pulled a card from his deck, and brandished it in front of him. "I activate _De-Spell_!"

Green haze erupted from his card and shot at the seal. When it hit, however, the spell fizzled out of existence and the seal remained intact. Judai's duo-coloured eyes widened in disbelief.

"_The Seal of Orichalcos_ cannot be destroyed or negated by card effects," Henry almost looked bored. "You are restricted to being a spectator. Stop inferring and let us continue."

Judai balled his hands into fists, but there was nothing he could do.

"Don't worry about us, Judai!" Jim called from inside. "We'll win for sure!"

At that, the brown and orange haired duelist let out a small smile and gave Jim a thumbs up. "I believe in you, Jim, Aurelia!"

Aurelia & Jim: 8000 LP  
Henry & Klaus: 7200 LP

* * *

**Extended Author's Note**

Remember how I said this story would update more frequently?

That was the best joke I ever made.

_cries in apology and begs forgiveness_


End file.
